R6034

Hi Paul,

Not only don't I not call ALLOCATE, I very rarely use anything other than Fortran 77. OK, I like to use ! for inline comments. I've got hooked on initialising whole arrays in one statement (although doing it in a loop is straightforward enough), and I sometimes now put several short statements on the same line. I would expect 99% of what I write to compile with FTN77 (was 100%). My data structures are so tiny compared to the vastness of even 1 gigabyte that I don't see the need to constrain my use of arrays to exactly what is needed. Also, I lack the mental elasticity to handle more than one problem at a time, and so all my programs are definitely SDI not MDI!

I'll create a short program to use a simplified version of the statement I included some posts ago.

Regards

Eddie

Paul,

Here is the short program:

      WINAPP
      PROGRAM Saxon_Shore
      INCLUDE <WINDOWS.INS>
      CHARACTER*(20) SSTOT
      SSTOT =  'Any old string'
      i=WINIO@('%ca[Extra pixels under RS]%ww[no_border]&')
      i=WINIO@('%fn[Arial]%ts%`ap%`bg%tc[black]%22`rs%sf&',
     &          0.9D0, 1.0D0, 0.0D0, RGB@(238,0,0), SSTOT)
      i=WINIO@('%ap%bm[BACKGROUND]&', 0, 0)
      i=WINIO@('%bx&',0.0D0)
      i=WINIO@('%ff%nl%cn%gr[rgb_colours,black]&',200,100)
      i=WINIO@('%ff%nl%cn%bt[Quit]')
      END
      RESOURCES
      BACKGROUND    BITMAP    'BACKGROUND.BMP'
      1   24   DEFAULT.MANIFEST

The one thing I cannot post is the BACKGROUND.BMP. I just created one 40 px high x 300 px wide in PAINT, and filled it with alternating black and white lines. You will see how the BACKGROUND.BMP is 'slid underneath' the %rs. The original in my program has the 'cartouche' for the text.

With 4.90, the red area is 16 px high, with 6.10 it is 18 - and yes, the program compiled and linked with 6.10 will run with Salflibc.dll that came with 4.90 (7.11.10.11 dated 30/11/2005).

Regards

Eddie

Hi Eddie and Paul,

if I remember correctly then many of these aspects are discused in the 'Eddie' tutorial.

Anyway, regarding the Plato editor. I actually do like the editor (and use it rather than VS). Suggestions: 1.) column editing; 2.) ability to have a 'DOS box' as Eddie mentioned; 3.) make it available as a single download on the FTN website; and 4.) plug-in for version control;

1. What does 'column editing' mean?

2. There is already a means of opening a DOS box from Plato but it does not work on my current machine. In the Options dialog, under Keyboard, look for Command.OpenDosBox. I will fix this so that it works in future. Was this what you had in mind?

3. Providing version control would be a major new feature. I will put it on the wish list. What is the significance oF 'plug-in'. Does this just mean an optional extra?

Paul,

'Column editing' means (for example) being able to cut out the 'square' character block from columns i to j in rows m to n, and possibly drop it in elsewhere. I swore that I would never be able to live without it, but actually I have no real need for it! (I used it for laying out data files). Cutting it or copying it doesn't seem to me to be very difficult. Pasting it is where there is a problem ...

Launching a DOS box from a menu is just a little bit tedious - much better to have it one-click away on a toolbar.

I also didn't understand 'plug-in'. Maybe it is some sort of configurable helper application, or as you put it, optional extra (but integrated!). Version control is a huge problem for professional developers, as you will understand yourself ... What I do is to copy the entire contents of my working directory to one with a new version, and work only on that.

Some people seem to use the 'Understand' application (Scitools.com) to do version control, it also has an editor that colours Fortran syntax. For me it is overkill, and yet another 'new trick' I didn't want to learn.

Eddie

1.) Column editing is also known as block editing. In many cases very practical - see figure below.

2.) I set Crtl+D for the DOS box but it does not work. In this window one can execute normal dos commands. I think that Eddie for example link manually and then this is very practical to have a window (on linux I use Kate e.g. and a terminal for linking and compiling).

4.) Version control could be Subversion for example. I guess one can see it as an optional extra.

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/269/blockts.jpg/][/URL]

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/dosy.jpg/][/URL]

Plato allows some column editing by holding down the ALT kind and dragging with the mouse.

I seem to remember on the VAX that when one had a file, say 'Magnet.for', then editing it would create Magnet.for.1, Magnet.for.2 etc. Clearly, one needs to talk to Microsoft about this in the general case, but some sort of version information could be recorded perhaps in a Plato project?

Doesn't help with my two extra lines of pixels though: to solve this in DIY I worked out that I would have to modify some 450 or so icons ... (Groan)

Eddie

1. I will fix the DOS box problem and make the command more accessible.

2. I will aim to fix the %`rs problem in some way.

3. The next release of Plato will have simple image editing - much better than SCION but not as good as Visual Studio in this respect.

4. I understand that one prefers what one first uses, whether it is an IDE or even a programming language. I was just a little concerned that forum comments might divert new users away from Plato without good reason.

Paul,

Plato has moved on, I see. I'm going to make an effort to use it. An easily-accessible DOS box would allow it to work in a traditional way.

If you are going to put image editing in, then can I suggest it needs to support all of the Clearwin image types - certainly ICO and BMP and conversion between. For ICO, one needs at least the standard range of sizes, different colour depths, and alpha channel operations. I found the standard Windows Paint application quite good enough for BMP, but the Win7 version is less friendly until you get used to it. I suggest looking at IconFX before investing too heavily in the effort of programming your own.

Thanks for offering to look at %`rs - it is a puzzle to me why it changed.

Eddie

The image editor has already been written. It won't have everything you want but hopefully is better than nothing. It will allow images to be included in a project dependency list.

Some (positive feedback) on Plato:

1.) The block editing works fine! Below is an example where I put the input variables to different calls in a table - very easy.

2.) Including some text files into the project (and then exclude them) is very practical.

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/191/colmn.jpg/][/URL]

Uploaded with [URL=http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/URL]

Regarding Eddie's request for a return to a 16 pixel height for %rs, I have implemented this via %rs[no_additional_depth].

Hopefully this change will do the trick without causing any further problems.

You will need to wait for the next release to see the effect. The no_additional_depth option is currently available but currently has no effect in this context.

Paul,

That's excellent. I had worked out that the no_additional_depth didn't help.

Eddie