home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- A principal change in syntax from Turbo Basic to PowerBASIC involves the use
- of duplicate names in variables, labels, subs, etc. An excerpt from the
- latest PowerBASIC readme file:
-
- In PowerBASIC, variables, labels, DEF FN functions, FUNCTIONs,
- SUBs, modules ($LINK files), and external public labels (in .OBJ
- files $LINKed into your program) cannot share names with each
- other. In other words, you cannot have both a variable called
- COUNT% and a SUB called COUNT in the same program. You can,
- however, share names between variables: A$, A$$, A%, A&, A&&, A!,
- A#, A##, A@, and A@@ are 10 distinct variables. There were
- several things which necessitated this change, but certainly the
- most significant was performance. If the compiler had to
- maintain multiple classes of identifiers with identical names,
- it would have significantly degraded compilation performance.
- Of course an added benefit is the fact that your programs will
- be easier to read and understand (for example, in "PRINT ABC",
- is "ABC" a variable, or a call to the FUNCTION "ABC"? Worse
- yet, within the FUNCTION "ABC", does "ABC = 1" refer to the
- return value of the function, or an external or shared variable
- by the same name?).
-
- Bob Zale (PowerBASIC R&D)
-
-