The Liberty Basic Newsletter - Issue #106 - MAR 2003

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

All Rights Reserved

Individual authors retain copyrights to their works.

"I'm tryin' to think, but nothin' happens!" -- Jerome "Curly" Howard [listen, if you're on the 'net]

Feature Articles In This Issue:

Blast from the past -- Three years ago in the Liberty Basic Newsletter

MDI in LB -- by David Conner

Open Source Editer 32-06 featuring "include" -- by Alyce Watson

Review of Alyce Watson's Liberty Basic Workshop! -- by David Drake

Fast Data Entry -- Demo by Bill Jennings

Using the SQLite Database Manager in LB -- by Colin McMurchie

Using the Tsunami Database Manager in LB -- by Colin McMurchie

Beginning Programming - Part II -- by Brad Moore

What I Did With the !Locate Command On My Summer Vacation -- by Tom Nally

Newsletter help


Application Files in the NL106 Archive:

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


Not in This Issue:

Breaking News! [Krispy Kreme] writes LB add-in to control donut-making operations; crullers get caught in infinite loops!

Breaking News! Donut supply crisis erupts! Nally publishes NL106 from mental hospital!

Breaking News! New LB user discovers undocumented control key sequence to compile LB programs to a single EXE file! Says Carl, "Calm down. That capability has been in LB since version 1.42. I never mentioned it because I didn't think anyone was interested!"

Breaking News! Carl establishes LB office in [Cozumel] to improve trigonometric functions. Says Carl, "Yeah, I really need to work on my TAN()." To recover the cost of Carl's TAN(), price of LB4 expected to quadruple!

Announcement from Carl: LB4 will be used to write a new version of SmallTalk, which in turn will be used to write LB5. Says Carl, "The circle is now complete. I once was a student. Now, I am the master."

Breaking News! Alyce pronounces NL106 "Weak, and totally lacking in passion"; recommends that newsletter readers go to [Blockbuster], rent [Ishtar] instead! Threatens retribution for the use of Three Stooges quote in the title block!


The Ramblings of a Maniac - Editor's Notes by Tom Nally

(WikiWriter, USA) Demonstrating that the good will and helpfulness of the Liberty BASIC community does not go unpunished for long, it is once again Nally's turn to assemble the Liberty BASIC newsletter. And do we have another great one for youse guys!

Batting first in the feature article section of the newsletter, David Conner has provided concise, step-by-step instructions to create an application featuring a Multiple Document Interface, or MDI. With David's easy to follow and nicely written tutorial, creating MDI applications is a mystery no longer. Job well done. May this be the first of many original contribtions from David!

For a long time, several users have requested that the native LB Editor provide a compiler directive supporting #include files, as is found in the editors for other languages. I, among others, assumed that this capability could only be provided by the native LB Editor. How nearsighted we were. For in another professionally written article, Alyce Watson shows that we need not wait for a future release of LB. Alyce's update of Open Source Editor 32 (Revision 06) allows the user to specify include files in this fashion:

'include filename.bas

When the user clicks RUN, the editor checks for the presence of any include files specified at the top of the source code. If it finds an "include" command (preceeded by the comment indicator <'>), then the editor will append the include file to the main source code file. A mark of fine design is simplicity of use. This one certainly qualifies. Read Alyce's explanation of the include process here. Thanks a bunch, Alyce!

Okay, kids, raise your hand if you've heard of Alyce Watson's integrated development environment, Liberty BASIC Workshop. For those who haven't, on which planet do you live? Did you just stop by Earth for a visit?

No matter, because David Drake has written an outstanding review of Liberty BASIC Workshop! David comprehensively identifies the goodies contained within LBW, tool by tool, feature by feature. At the same, the review also points out the similarities and differences between LBW and the LB editor, and LBW and Freeform. This is a splendid review for a splendid IDE. Well done, David.

Following the LBW review is Bill Jennings' demo, fastDataEntry.bas. Bill's spreadsheet-like demo provides a handy method for entering data quickly...and without the use of the mouse. The [Enter] key will move input control down to the succeeding line. Fast, handy, and customizable it is. Read about it here Thanks, Bill!

Next, Colin McMurchie continues to share his specialty with us by providing two articles on database operations! A tutorial with examples using SQLite can by found here, while an equivalent article for the Tsunami database manager can be found here. With Colin's clear examples, database creation and management is now available to LB programmers of all skill levels. And for the ambitious programmer, Colin's work has the potential to make Liberty BASIC the GUI host for mega-applications. Great work, Colin!

Speaking of skill levels, Brad Moore has produced a marvelous article intended for beginning programmers. Among other things, Brad discusses problem-solving in general, pseudo-code, flow charts, and some of the elemental BASIC commands. My friends, I'm sure you'll agree that this thoughtfully written article could serve as the outline for a book on beginning programming! Despite the target readership, this article is actually great material for programmers of any level. Good job, Brad.

Last (and surely least), yours truly discusses his little demo program called LBCard (pronounced "Elby Card"). Leveraging the capabilities of LB's !Locate command, LBCard attempts to emulate the behavior of a HyperCard stack. What can I say about LBCard? It has no weight, but it takes up space. So, it can't be matter. Must be anti-matter. No matter.

Okay, friends, if the schedule holds, Brad Moore will wrap NL107 in a headlock, while Alyce will pile-drive NL108. I'll see ya with NL109, unless this newsletter prompts my banishment.

Tom Nally


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

NewsLetter TOC

Newsletter Home

Blast

MDI

OS Editor

LBW Review

Fast Data

SQLite

Tsunami

Begin Prog II

Locate/LBCard