PureBasic Forums - English

Gentlemen ...
This request has been made repeatedly, and in course of time also several workarounds have been posted ....
I can't avoid the impression that this topic might be exhausted.

> If you like workarounds why did you complain about the same one in this post?

I wasn't complaining about it; I was just warning him what it could lead to,
which is ignoring the request. I'm in favor of workarounds for small things,
but not to replace big things (which answers Tenaja's question).

Tenaja wrote:

PB wrote:To show that such simple requests can be done by the "programmer".

That can be a slippery slope... afterall, if you take that literally, why is Fred making any updates???

Because we cannot fix bugs in the compiler is reason enough

But talking about requests, because there are two types of them if we limit ourself to the language:

the kind you can implement by yourself in your code: but you are asking for a native solution because you think if would be better for some reason (crossplatform, easier to understand, useful to a lot of people and so could be a nice addition to the language or native library, or simply because you are plain lazy or is too difficult for you, etc.).

the kind you cannot implement yourself *at all* or only partially but not with the same level of integration, efficiency, versatility you would have by modifying the compiler: for example polymorphism -> http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... =3&t=55335 or a new keyword like Constant -> http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... =3&t=34045

So for the second type, updates to the language/compiler are required.

luis wrote:

Tenaja wrote:That can be a slippery slope... afterall, if you take that literally, why is Fred making any updates???

But talking about requests, because there are two types of them if we limit ourself to the language:

the kind you can implement by yourself in your code: but you are asking for a native solution because you think if would be better for some reason (crossplatform, easier to understand, useful to a lot of people and so could be a nice addition to the language or native library, or simply because you are plain lazy or is too difficult for you, etc.).

the kind you cannot implement yourself *at all* or only partially but not with the same level of integration, efficiency, versatility you would have by modifying the compiler: for example polymorphism -> http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... =3&t=55335 or a new keyword like Constant -> http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... =3&t=34045

So for the second type, updates to the language/compiler are required.

This may be true, but I always consider the amount of work required of Fred before I make a request. (I rarely request one that takes as much as an hour of his time, and my requests are few and far between.) In this particular instance, I believe Fred could implement a Step Multiplication in less than fifteen minutes (I am being generous--it is more likely five minutes; "all" he has to do is multiply instead of add). Yes, I know this from firsthand experience, as I have implemented this very request.

Anything that he can implement that can help a large number of people, and make code significantly easier to read, and only takes a few minutes...that is a worthy request, in my estimation. Something that requires a whole additional library file to work around, and helps a small percentage of people...not as much.

With as many times as this has been requested, it will clearly be helpful to many...On the other hand, we have seen over and over again that Fred does not implement features based on the number of requests.

Yeah, expanding on what luis said, it would be helpful if Feature Request topics were expanded:
IDE, Compiler, Debugger, VisualDesigner, Syntax/Language, etc.
In most cases, readers of a feature request attempt to determine if a "workaround exists".
Stifling that effort is not helpful to anyone and certainly don't influence Fred's decisions.