ThinBasic Journal, Issue 1

[Petr Schreiber]

First issue of ThinBasic Journal, hope you will like it :)
Contributors in this issue are Psch and Charles Pegge.

Reason we did not asked more people to contribute to first issue is not that we would not like to see their articles here, but we simply wanted to make first issue as surprise for as many friends as possible :)

Contents of this issue:
New in core

TYPE inheritance
UNIONs for memory overlapping
Multidimensional arrays in UDTs
Power of FOR / NEXT


New in modules

New features in Asmosphere


Articles

NeHe rebirth and ThinBasic
Legacy BASIC code and ThinBasic

[ErosOlmi]

This is one of the best present I've ever received in my programming life. I'm crying :'(

Thanks a lot to all have contributed to realize this Journal.

Eros

[MystikShadows]

You know, I've been looking at ThinBasic and this forum for a while now seeing how it's all evolving, the passion behind every part of the project and I've been saying to myself, man, ThinBasic is so due for it's own e-zine/magazine/something that reflects all that passion to the outside world even more than can be shown from the project itself and what people can read about when they come here. We tried to do that in PCOPY! but not being in the ThinBasic Game from the start we couldn't reflect this combination of passion, dedication, motivation and excellent results as good as can be read in this forum. And consequently, the better articles about ThinBasic in PCOPY! was (as I expected) the ones written by you guys.

Let's face it, ThinBasic is evolving fast, quite an incredible rate of growth considering the number of developers actually working on the project. And the main reason why it's evolving at such a fast yet stable rate,well, I'll refer you all to my post a little while back that you can read here: http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?topic=1666.msg12114#msg12114 for the reasons why ;). What's done typically works rather well, what needs to be done still has a reason to be in the to do list. When the system you have in place is designed to give the users what they want or need for their project it's kinda hard to think anything else but "ThinBasic is what I need" not just because of the language itself (great language features, intelligent syntax, and impressive speed of execution) but also with a team like you guys behind it, it's just a perfect combination for a successful project.

This magazine isn't much of a surprise to me, I consider it part of the next evolutionary stage of the ThinBasic project. What's really astounding about it is that it was made by people that are already busy enough passionately developing ThinBasic itself and yet still found the time to create this first issue. How's that for dedication and motivation? Man, there's just no two ways about it. You guys deserve the success you're getting and this magazine is just yet another reason why you deserve all that success.

So two huge thumbs up to everyone involved in the release of this first issue and to everyone involved in the continuing development of ThenBasic.

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi MystikShadows,

I am sitting here and scratching my head how to reply to your very nice post ;D
Well ... thanks a lot! And remember I am still looking forward to continuation of your extreme programming PCOPY article ;)

Eros, it was not an intention to make you cry, we want you happy ;) Hope you will have some spare time too, it would be great to have some articles directly from you and Roberto in future! I know you are very busy, but as you admitted in one thread I cannot find anymore, you are an Extra-Terrestrial from outerspace, so that could help :).


Petr

[catventure]

This is a wonderful and helpful publication and will also be invaluable reference source.
I've made a folder on my desktop in which to keep "tBJ".

catventure.

[ErosOlmi]

--MystikShadows: I've really no words. Thanks.

--Petr: sure, I will prepare an article for the next issue. I've some words to spend on some unique fetures of thinBasic and on module development.

[MystikShadows]

Hi MystikShadows,

I am sitting here and scratching my head how to reply to your very nice post ;D
Well ... thanks a lot! And remember I am still looking forward to continuation of your extreme programming PCOPY article ;)

Eros, it was not an intention to make you cry, we want you happy ;) Hope you will have some spare time too, it would be great to have some articles directly from you and Roberto in future! I know you are very busy, but as you admitted in one thread I cannot find anymore, you are an Extra-Terrestrial from outerspace, so that could help :).


Petr


TO Petr:

lol...don't worry the next article in the series is already started :-).

Maybe you should have a hardcopy of TBJ and staple some tissues to it and mail it to Eros ;). hehe. But hey, it shows just how passionate about thinBasic everyone is. :).

To Eros:

Hehe I'm getting good at this "leaving people speechless" thing. Don't you think? I'm just as happy as everyone else is at how fast, stable and great thinBasic is becoming with every release. That's all :).

[ErosOlmi]

Hehe I'm getting good at this "leaving people speechless" thing. Don't you think?

You must know that here we are all very "sensible" people so you must have a limit in your compliments otherwise we cry all the day :D

Ok, now I'm going back to ... code ;)

[Michael Hartlef]

Thanks guys, what a big surprise. I'm sure I will read it.

Michael

[GSAC3]

To the authors of the ThinBasic Journal --

Many thanks to all of you for a very useful and well done information source for all ThinBasic users. Its a great complement to the ThinBasic package.

ITS A REAL WINNER!

Don

[sandyrepope]

Thank you for the first issue. I loved it. Great job!

I especially enjoyed reading the article on old code.

Thanks
Sandy

[kryton9]

@Petr and Charles:
What an incredible surprise. I was expecting a surprise of some sorts, I have been twisting Petr's arms for days for clues and he is a very good secret agent and able to keep things hush hush. I am blown away by this beautiful looking, well designed and presented Journal.

It captures the excitement of programming journals from years gone by, but adding many new wonderful features that make modern journals.

On top of all else you guys have been doing, to be able to put something like this out is just amazing, THanks so much!!!

@MystikShadows, again your words of capturing my feelings about the team here and the great work are really well put. That is such a great description of the team that makes thinBasic and what it means to have this new journal. PCopy will only grow with the work you guys are doing and with passionate writing as that too. Keep up your great job too. I venture out to look at other languages all the time and it is very complicated to put information about languages as well as you guys do.

[Charles Pegge]

Glad it's worked out so well.

I enjoyed writing for Petr's new journal - it was easy to do so I envisage many more articles to follow.

[zlatkoAB]

First of all you surprise me with mail,second journal is great :)

[matthew]

Very nice read & totally unexpected. :)

For the past 2 years we've been trying to create something similar for Basic4GL. :P

Maybe one day... ::)

[RobertoBianchi]

That nice idea you have!
Really a great job, very impressive.
Also excellent style of magazine.

Thank you very much,
Roberto

[marcuslee]

There is so much to thinBasic. I'm finding new stuff everyday. I don't consider myself a good programmer, but I love learning about this stuff ... even though sometimes I don't understand it. That's okay. With more articles like "Power of FOR/NEXT" and "Legacy BASIC code and ThinBasic" I'll feel like I know what I am talking about.

Those two articles I just mentioned were my favorite in the journal because they involved stuff that I not only understand but that I can use. Some of the other articles I will have to study, read about here in the forums and maybe ask questions about before I completely understand them.

Keep up the good work! BY the way, how often are you planning on coming out with these journals?

Mark :D

[ErosOlmi]

We are committed to produce new TBJ at every thinBasic official release.
But of course it depends on how many articles we will have to publish.

Remember that everyone can write an article on TBJ, just send material (articles, pictures, code) to the mentioned email and you will see your material published.

[zlatkoAB]

Hi guys....
When i read first time i miss one excellent thing UNION.
UNION uBitmap32x32
cComponent(32x32) As tRGB
cValue(32x32) As LONG
rawData As String * 4096
END UNION

Dim myImage As uBitmap32x32

I dont see any similiar in other basics,excellent and very powerful. :)

[ISAWHIM]

That was cool...

After years programming in every basic... from CommidoreVic-20's, TSR-80's, Amiga-500's, Mac's, PICmicro, ATMEL, 486's, 586's, VB 3-6, .NET, JavaScript... blah blah... I still learned something.

Gotta give you multiple points for the UNION thing... That would have come in soooo handy when I was programming data-flippers for reducing solutions for a "Lights-Out" style game. (The puzzles could have the same solution, but R-L swapped, T-B swapped, Rotated 90, 180, 270... and swapped and rotated together. It was a nightmare, but I was able to do it all in one pass, with one single set of data. I think a UNION would have saved me a LOT more time.)

Hehe... the puzzles had 2 to the 25th power... 33,554,432 original solutions... Reduced to nearly 8,000,000 unique solutions. (Some could be solved in less moves, with the same result. Some could also be shifted around, since they used less than 5x5.)

Yea, anywho... LOL

Great job!

I love the simplified FOR/NEXT, more like javascript...

I will love it more when the program assumes that the first VAR in the FOR, is a LONG, unless otherwise stated. (Since that is the most common use for a loop, counting with the fastest number-type. LONG is longer, but it is also natively faster, since, in memory, it is not dissecting a LONG into smaller chunks, like a BIT, or a BYTE. In a counter, you want the fastest value for comparison, since it is only one single disposable chunk of data. Being smaller is simply irrelevant, unless you have a million nested loops.)

Can't wait for the next version.

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks for nice words,

Journal #2 gets more authors, so it will be hopefully even more interesting :)
ThinBasic 1.7.0.0 introduces some very important additions, so it is very enjoyable to write about it.


Petr

[Lionheart008]

hi all:)

dear petr.. I will try to help you for issue 2 with a little tutorial about one of my first tbgl scripts... or a changing nehe lesson;) I have learnt a lot and made mistakes, so I can say, what's important or not... articles from a beginner to newbies :)

best regards, lionheart

[Michael Clease]

LionHeart I would save it for issue #3.

I think Petr has almost finished issue #2.

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Lionheart,

I would be for Issue #3, if it does not mean problem for you.
#2 will already contain 2 articles on TBGL related stuff, better to not "flood" readers with too much articles on similar topic.


Petr

[oldpapa49]

I Just found these.. This what the doctor ordered.. Now I can read and learn..

Thanks Petr

[Lionheart008]

hi oldpapa :) yes, this is a really good medicine to learn more about thinbasic and I would recommend for a beginner also some of the various examples of the current thinbasic release 1.7.7.0, there are so many helps and infos here at the board too:)

when you are searching for a special term choose a world (eg "TBGL ENTITY" or "Smoke" or "Timer" or "Button Menu") for the search box right top and check the selection what post at the board is the right for you... Use also the "F1" Help button, when you are working with thinair, take the mouse over a word (when it's blue colored) and push the F1 Button... so you can get more precise answer for your question how to handle with the code functions... My mistake at my start here was to forget this important Help Key (must laugh), so I must ask day by day... ;)

@petr: do you need help for issue 3? my input would be: button menu gui or tbgl (axisfork example) or other things... say it to me... what's the date for deadline???

best wishes, you are welcome here "oldpapa" :), best regards, Lionheart

[Michael Hartlef]

@petr: do you need help for issue 3? my input would be: button menu gui or tbgl (axisfork example) or other things... say it to me... what's the date for deadline???


Hi Franck,

at deadline is not set yet and there are allways articles welcome. The more the better.

Michael

[Petr Schreiber]

Frank,

article is welcomed, send it in DOC/ODT/PDF/TXT format along with pictures to Journal@ThinBasic.com when ready please.
I am looking forward to it!


Petr