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Bingo! If only I had thought to look. Actually, I found this *before* I read Helmut Zinn's reply. Here is the missing library, already converted:
http://www.zinnamturm.de/#Opal
My points in writing were (1) to illustrate some of the barriers to adopting BB and (2) to point out that there is a major standard library that is nowhere to be found in the BB distribution. There's not even a mention of it. I think you ought to include it with the standard distribution, because there's a lot of programming for which that's good enough, or even better than more elaborate methods.
In fact, isn't something like that supposed to be in every distribution, according to the Oakwood recommendations? I, for one found it a big turnoff that I had to look so hard for it.
Thanks for all your help. Once again, it's not so much about me and my programming needs -- it's about winning converts.
=======================================
Now another subject. Thanks to everyone for pointing out to me that I should be doing Windows programming. I am astonished to be having that kind of debate. Actually, I agree with you partly, but to tell you the truth, that is not the only way to compute. For a lot of the daily work of my lab it is of no advantage whatsoever, and I actually find it to be a disadvantage. It's also a heck of a lot harder to program. I'm not about to burn up all my time programming a GUI just so I can process data slower. I know I'm not alone in this approach.
If you're interested in how I do it, when anyone logs on, they are reminded that they only have to remember one command: 'xrf'. That gets them a menu for anything they need. It's all incredibly simple and easy to implement on a console, and the programming is easy too.
I would not consider trying to teach anyone to run programs from the BB environment. That would be a futile exercise. Our programs must be freestanding, whether graphics-based or console-based.
As far as using a console for managing data and files, for most purposes there are only about three or four commands that are needed, and most of them can be abbreviated to a single letter, like 'c' for 'copy'. For anyone who is interested, I have an enhanced command processor, 4NT, which is compatible with DOS, but which is modernized and works beautifully. I'm aware of the terrors of the UNIX man command.
Don't get me wrong. I use Windows and Windows programs constantly. At the moment I have four open, and that would be typical in the lab also. I don't have to be converted to the benefits of windowed programming. But it's not all there is to programming. And it's anything but simple.
Thanks, Wojtek for pointing out the V24 comm library. I vaguely remembered there was one for the Oberon OS.
Rex Couture
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--- send subject HELP or UNSUBSCRIBE to blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy
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Received on Sat Feb 19 2005 - 23:48:43 UTC