[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 01/26/2018 03:36 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2018-01-24 18:26, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> Given what it was designed for BASIC was never taken seriously.  Even
>> after ANSIfication it was still not overly practical as most versions
>> were interpreted and not compiled. What data type of none-integer does
>> BASIC support that can do calculations with decimals without the
>> cumulative error common to floating point?
> 
> Is that a trick question?
> BASIC can actually do arithmetic on strings, with arbitrary precision.
> And that's been in several different BASIC dialects I've played with.

But the problem with BASIC is every one is different.  Not the kind
of language I would be betting my business on today.

> 
>  From the BP2 help:
> 
>    FUNCTIONS
> 
>      BUILT-IN
> 
>        SUM$
> 
>   The SUM$ function returns a string whose value is the sum of two  numeric
>   strings.
> 
>   Format
> 
>       str-vbl = SUM$(str-exp1, str-exp2)
> 
>   Example
> 
>   600    Sigma$ = SUM$("234.444", A$)
> 
> 
> You also have DIF$, PROD$ and QUO$.

Totally unique to DEC.  Later RSTS, RSX and then VMS.  I have
worked with a number of versions of BASIC and no others did it.

Considering that VMS BASIC has the DECIMAL type makes one wonder
why they keep STRING Arithmetic.

bill


bill