The Liberty Basic Newsletter - Issue #107 - April 2003

© 2003, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lbnews/

All Rights Reserved

No part of this newsletter may be reproduced or published in another location without the expressed, written consent of the publishers.

Individual authors retain copyrights to their works.

The empty PC . . .

The program finds thoughtless the concept.

Broken zero.

Haiku by John Fisher's Haiku Generator

In this issue:

Tip Cornner: Easy Email

Article: Alyce's Favorite LB Websites

Feature: Haiku For Programmers

Feature: Haiku Generator by John Fisher

Demo: API Based File Operations by Dennis McKinney

Article: Operating System Selection by Jason Herbert

Article: Binary Coding by Jim Brossman

Article: Beginning Programming Part 3 by Brad Moore

Article: DatePup32 DLL - A Date Utility by Brad Moore

Newsletter help

Index


Files in the NL107 Archive:

Note: The source code for the programs (listed below) may be copied from the articles associated with each:


SYNTAX ERROR: Notes from the Editor

Well sports fans - here we go again. Another newsletter brought to by Brad Moore (those with weak stomachs might want to look for the eject button anytime now). April already. What happened to January and New Years and all that stuff. I am not ready for April. And the tax man too!

Well - to help keep your minds off of the rapid passage of time and our friends from the IRS and all that stuff we have here a feature packed edition of the Liberty Basic Newsletter. Many really great people have stepped up to the plat with material, and I want to really express my appreciation. Alyce comes at us with her round up of top Liberty Basic sites to visit. Of course being ever so humble she has left off one of my all time favorite LB sites - http://alyce.hytext.com (AKA Alyce's Restaurant). Dennis is onboard with a great demo (a follow up to a thread on the Liberty Basic List) on API based file operations. This is a must read if you are trying to work with files that may or may not be in use by other programs. Try building these error trapping techniques into your next program.

I have commandeered John Fishers Haiku Generator program he posted on the Liberty Basic list, and with his permission I am republishing it with a couple extra frills and a challenge from John. This unfortunately is not the end of the Haiku non-sense, as I so enjoyed this thread, I am posting additional snippets of some of my favorites. Hey - did you notice this month's quote section featured original Haiku generated by John Fisher's Haiku generator? Pretty cool - huh?

Jim Brossman has generously allowed me to print a article and demo on using binary encoding to store bi-state data (something that is either true or not true, on or off, etc.). Jason also has contributed a neat little article and demo that can help you out if you deploy your application to multiple OS platforms and run different versions for 16bit versus 32bit. Check out his Multi-OS article.

I also have been busy, kind of wish I had something to show for it. Well I do have the next installment of the LB Beginners series. I am also publishing a little bit on a couple DLLs I have written. I hope it is useful. I know a couple others wanted to have some things ready in time, but looks like they did not make it. I am encouraged, because the ideas sounded great and I know we will be hearing from them soon! You know everyone puts a lot of effort into writing demos and articles - it would sure be great to hear form more than just a handful of people regarding what was great and what helped you, and what you would like to see in the future. Please post your comments to the Liberty Basic group on yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertybaisc) or to the newsletters group on the ConForums website (http://libertybasic.conforums.com/) Thanks. Brad Moore


NEWS: What is big in the News for the Month of March, 2003!

The big news was the long awaited announcement of the first Liberty Basic 4 alpha test. This is to be one in a series of alpha test releases that will come from Carl and Shoptalk Systems as the product rolls down the assembly line toward the first serious beta test cycles. This is most encouraging, as it means LB4 is on its way, but when it will actually arrive, well Carl tells we have a bit of a wait. Typically these processes run through several alpha test, then several beta test cycles. So we will see what time brings.

Here is Carl's official announcement:

The first LB4 alpha was posted today!

Anyone who is serious about alpha testing Liberty BASIC 4 should head over to http://libertybasic.conforums.com to read details on how to get involved in testing. :-)

Note: Alpha testing is for those who are serious about testing, and not for casual users. - Carl

I have also take the liberty of patching together several emails and announcements regarding both the development of LB4 and features list of the first alpha release to highlight some of the really neat stuff that is coming in the next major release of Liberty Basic. If you are like me, then you can hardly wait.

Carl wrote in January that the first alpha will include a new lesson browser. This is a tool for authoring and also working through lessons. It has an outline pane on the left, a commentary pane on the upper right, and a code pane on the lower right (a lot like Outlook). So, pick a chapter and example section and a narrative appears, along with code you can run (and modify/experiment with).

He also said he will be converting the Liberty BASIC tutorials over to this format.

Some future enhancements to the lesson browser may be able to include:

Carl says here is a list of stuff that is included with the first LB4 alpha release. More stuff will follow, and if you don't see your favorite feature, make sure to mention it!


SUBMISSIONS

The Liberty BASIC Newsletter encourages all LB programmers to submit articles for publication. Everyone has something valuable to say, from beginners to veteran LBers. Consider sharing a code routine, with explanation. Perhaps you can review a favorite LB website, or program, or coding tool? Why not submit a list of questions that have been nagging at you? How about sharing your favorite algorithm?

The Publishing Team:
Alyce Watson: alycewatson@charter.net
Brad Moore: brad.moore@weyerhaeuser.com
Tom Nally: SteelWeaver52@aol.com
Carl Gundel: carlg@libertybasic.com
Bill Jennings: bbjen@bigfoot.com

This newsletter was produced with WikiWriter

Home

Tip Cornner

Alyce's Favorite LB Sites

Haiku For Programmers

Haiku Generator

API File Operations

OS Selection

Binary Coding

Beginning Programming 3

DatePup32 DLL

Newsletter Help

Index