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jman

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Joined: 12/06/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 711

Posted: 10:35am 28 Nov 2014

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Hi

I was playing with some older code and discovered a problem with the variable
names as some of the different types of variables have the same name
Then after reading the change log properly

" To prevent a common type of programming error variables with the same name but different types are no longer supported. ie, var = 123 : var$ = "abc" will now cause an error"

So the question is would to be possible to make this an option ie on by default and off by setting an OPTION Variabletype off or some thing similar

Anybody else with any thoughts around this ?

Regards
Jman

BobD

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Joined: 07/12/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 935

Posted: 11:09am 28 Nov 2014

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John
I don't care if this is an option or not but I would never knowingly use variables the way you describe. If there is a need to associate variables by name then I would use a descriptive appendage or similar.
Example:
var.one
var.two
Bob

G8JCF

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Joined: 15/05/2014
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 676

Posted: 11:44am 28 Nov 2014

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In a previous post about this subject, http://www.thebackshed.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7078&PN =3&TPN=5

robert.rozee said
5. i really hate the new requirements that variable names be unique, ie A and A$ are mutually exclusive names. i really really think that this should be a configurable option the same as "OPTION EXPLICIT" that defaults to being off. amongst other things, it may break existing code.

and

Geoff said

This is amazing, previously I got a lot of stick because this was allowed!

It was a bad practice and I believe that the critics had a good point. Also the change was necessary to allow variables to optionally not use a type suffix.

It will break a few programs (it broke one of mine) but the change was necessary. And before anyone asks, I don't want to make it yet another option - there are too many already.

Peter

The only Konstant is Change

jman

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Joined: 12/06/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 711

Posted: 01:52pm 28 Nov 2014

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Thanks Peter

I missed that one but I do agree with Robert

Regards
Jman

Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063

Posted: 02:01pm 28 Nov 2014

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Sorry to pester you, and this is a slight digression from topic, but why is having A and A$ NOT being allowed a problem?

Is it more just that it breaks existing code, and you have to port the code to the new version of MMBASIC?

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

MicroBlocks

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Joined: 12/05/2012
Location: Thailand
Posts: 2209

Posted: 03:35pm 28 Nov 2014

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If a variable name does not describe what it is used for then the name is wrong.
Having a number and a string version of the same variable is just silly.
It would save so much debugging time when that is not allowed that it will make up the little problem of changing existing code.
A simple search and replace will do the change in a few seconds.
.

Microblocks. Build with logic.

Grogster

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Posted: 03:48pm 28 Nov 2014

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OK, I can see the logic in that now. Thanks.

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

jman

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Posted: 04:07pm 28 Nov 2014

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TZAdvantage said If a variable name does not describe what it is used for then the name is wrong.
.

Oh Dear this going to be can of worms so this the last post about this for me.

So if we had the hours of the day in a string say hours$ but now we wanted this
as an integer to do some math on then calling the variable hours is silly
really !!!

Jman

MicroBlocks

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Posted: 07:29am 29 Nov 2014

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HoursText$
Hours

Problem solved.

Microblocks. Build with logic.

Dylan
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Joined: 17/06/2013
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 81

Posted: 08:07am 29 Nov 2014

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Hour$
Hours

Even simpler.

WhiteWizzard
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Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2794

Posted: 08:38am 29 Nov 2014

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Dylan; I'm with you on that one - however I see any 'well fuelled eyes' missing the odd '$' and 'S' typo among a big listing!!

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