[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2018-01-26 22:29, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> 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.

That I won't argue with. Most dialects are different. There is a core 
which is pretty much the same always, but beyond that it definitely varies.

>>  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.

Because it is more portable. As I said before, this is something I have 
seen in other BASIC dialect, which are not from DEC. I would say this is 
more widespread than the decimal type, which is based on a type the VAX 
supports in hardware. The decimal type don't even exist in BASIC+2.

   Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
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