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Hey calling all programmers to give help if you wish


Question

Hey i'm in year 11 now this year

doing Software design and development

starting on turbo pascal version 1.5

i know it's old

and it's BS to you guys

but gees i'm just soooo lost about this we jump so fast

we start talking about object orientated and then we start talking about flowcharts ans psuedocode

wat the hell am i learning

so can you guys give me some tips on what to do in programming

do u guys still remember when the first time u touched this stuff?..

Recommended Posts

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Originally posted by grimman

take it from a VB-person... DON'T DO VB! :D

scripting might do fine (ASP), but ****... vb as a programming language is pure crap.

VB has its bad and good points. it is a very good language to learn if you are NEW to programming. thou i prefer C++ over visual basic...

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Originally posted by Winston

Hey i'm in year 11 now this year

doing Software design and development

starting on turbo pascal version 1.5

i know it's old

and it's BS to you guys

but gees i'm just soooo lost about this we jump so fast

we start talking about object orientated and then we start talking about flowcharts ans psuedocode

wat the hell am i learning

so can you guys give me some tips on what to do in programming

do u guys still remember when the first time u touched this stuff?..

okay firstly whilst pascal is old, it certainly isn't bs. it powers Delphi, the main rival to visual basic. i say rival because, even though Delphi is infinitely better, most people are tought VB in schools because its more idiot-friendly and fisher-price like.

and returning to "old" again, BASIC and C / C++ are both incredibly old languages as well, so you shouldn't think that an "old" language is a bad one by default.

sure, turbo pascal is an old IDE ("integrated development environment", fancy word for programming-program :)), but even if you think turbo pascal is crap because its older than visual basic or whatever, you are SO lucky to be using it. visual basic is the worst program ever made by those microsoft motherbitches. it makes me want to cry just looking at it.

moving on

object oriented programming is basically when you start grouping things together using what are called "records" or "classes".

for example, instead of having seperate variables for the height of person a and for the weight of person a, you would have a record/class called "person", which contained two "fields" called height and weight. it may also contain methods (depending on the language), such as "MakeGiant" which could increase the height and weight by 10000 times

using this record / class you would declare a variable OF it, say, "personA", and then you could get the height and weight of him by using personA.height personA.weight, so you use one variable and two fields instead of two seperate variables. in essence, the person class/record is an "object" you have created that groups related / similar items.

this may sound really confusing so take another real life example. in real life, you can say that a box has a few "properties" or "fields" such as its height, its width, its length. when you're programming, it would get really confusing if you had seperate variables for these (boxheightA, boxwidthA etc) so you create one object to emcompass them all.

now, say you want people to be able to get the height of the box from the object, but not be able to set it. you would "hide" its height field, and create a method called "GetHeight" which would return the height. this would mean that you could use GetHeight to find out the height, but never be able to use Box.Height = X to change it.

object orientated programming also deals with heirachies. imagine one day you find a box that resembles the first box we created - it has a height, a width and a length - but it is made out of sticks. you could then declare a class called "StickBox" which "inherited" properties from "Box" (height/width/length) as well as adding its own properties, such as "StickLength" "StickType". this idea of inheritance is used soooo much in Delphi and Visual C++ and NOT AT ALL in visual basic (unless you are using .NET) because basic is a ****ty, ****ty language.

pseudocode is just a make believe language used to teach programming. what you write in pseudocode will NOT compile in a real language. it is primarily used so that people can write stuff like "get the users input" in pseudocode and be "correct" instead of having to write it properly using syntax rules used in real languages, for example "ReadLn(blah)" in Pascal or "cin >> blah" in C++

pseudocode is **** and i hope its inventor dies a horrible painful death.

flowcharts are just ways of showing the "flow" or order-of-execution of an algorithm to people not smart enough to understand it by looking at the code. not as annoying as pseudocode, but very annoying to create.

as an aside, the australian software course sucks donkeys balls and i will be dropping it next year (im in y11). apparently only like 1 person in NSW got band 6 last year.

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Not to get into a language-flame war, but any language is ****ty in the hands of the wrong person. VB is far safer for anyone that doesn't care to know sys internals than C/C++ is. The intent of the language wasn't to be the best friggin oop language you've ever seen. It was to be able to create apps in a timely manner. IMO, it acheived that. So what if you can't do implementation inheritance or polymorphism in it? You can componentize in it just as well as any other language with less blood and sweat. COM is a smart component design, albeit, complicated.

Before you go off on how much better Delphi is than VB, I'll just let you know that I happen to love the VCL. Borland's tools are the best. I've been using them since Turbo C, then Borland C++ 4.5, and now C++ Builder 5.

Every tool can be used efficiently if you know what you're doing in the first place. Every language has its drawbacks.

Psuedocode is a handy tool to use to sketch ideas without having to be at a terminal. It's just plain language, so why is it so horrible?

It's obvious that you've never worked on any piece of software of any significance. Flowcharts, or UML are invaluable design tools. For small projects, they are probably overkill, but for large scale apps, they rule. It has nothing to do with being smart or not. You've never inherited 150,000+ lines of code written by someone that doesn't comment, didn't bother to document, and has bugs that you have to track down on a deadline. It sucks.

If you want to be a good programmer, you're going to find that a good percentage of the process entails design and documentation without writing any code. If your design is solid, the code pretty much writes itself. Of course, programming is an interative process, so if it doesn't work, you go back to designing, etc.

If you're just in it to write apps for yourself, disregard.

Winston, don't worry about syntax, you'll get it eventually and there is always reference material. The most important thing is to understand the software development process and how to build solid code. You need to understand what problem it is you are trying to solve. Write down what inputs you'll be getting from the user, what outputs they want, what formulas you'll need, etc. Then use psuedocode to map out the logic in plain english. Software is really just manipulation of data, whether from a user, datafile, soundcard, etc., and presentation of the manipulated data. Input and output.

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Originally posted by weenur

Every tool can be used efficiently if you know what you're doing in the first place. Every language has its drawbacks.

Yes, but [Visual] Basic has far more drawbacks than most.

Originally posted by weenur

Psuedocode is a handy tool to use to sketch ideas without having to be at a terminal. It's just plain language, so why is it so horrible?

It's horrible because it isn't plain language. It would be nice if it was, but the "version" we are taught at school isn't just a "handy tool to sketch ideas" but attempts to be a structured language which has numerous syntax rules that contradict most "real" programming languages (such as = for both assigning and testing values). I have nothing against writing down rough algorithms or ideas on a piece of paper, I just hate this "glorified" version we are taught at school.

Originally posted by weenur It's obvious that you've never worked on any piece of software of any significance. Flowcharts, or UML are invaluable design tools. For small projects, they are probably overkill, but for large scale apps, they rule. It has nothing to do with being smart or not. You've never inherited 150,000+ lines of code written by someone that doesn't comment, didn't bother to document, and has bugs that you have to track down on a deadline. It sucks.

Well, I don't know exactly what you mean by "significance", but whilst I'm obviously not part of the Windows development team (hell, i'm only 16) I have worked on projects a lot more complicated than "Hello, World" :)

Recently finished this with a mate from school:

http://www.enfiladestudios.com/products/rifletarget

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Originally posted by Winston

Hey i'm in year 11 now this year

doing Software design and development

starting on turbo pascal version 1.5

i know it's old

and it's BS to you guys

For a long time, most commercial software was written in either Pascal or C. The decline of Pascal is to do with the fact that Microsoft didn't make a Pascal compiler and Borland don't know how to market their stuff not the language itself. Still there are 1,000,000 Delphi developers.

TurboPascal had support for pointers and had more powerful arrays than C. Versions 6.0 and 7.0 had support for objects too...

Anyway, TP 1.0 doesn't have much of an IDE so it can be hard to program with. I'd recommend you go to http://community.borland.com, sign-up there and then go to http://community.borland.com/article/0,141...0,20803,00.html and download TurboPascal 5.5, even if you only use it at home. It's not too easy to install but it's more intuitive. Version 7.0 has online help, (but it's not Freeware - yet) so if you can find it you may have a better idea of what each line you type actually does.

but gees i'm just soooo lost about this we jump so fast

we start talking about object orientated and then we start talking about flowcharts ans psuedocode

wat the hell am i learning

The initial part of the course - ergonomics, planning solutions, the top-down method of Software Design etc. - don't apply to TP 1.5 (well you can do top-down programming, just not so simply as now) because those ideas weren't even thought of! You basically type your examples and then try to work out what each part does.

Which book are you using? The Heinemann one (by Allan Fowler) talks quite a bit about Pascal syntax.

When programming (for real), forget most that pseudocode rubbish that you've been through. The principles of programming are in pseudocode (i.e. pseudocode is based on Pascal) but their syntax are different. In a real program you cannot dictate to the computer, you have to follow the exact syntax rules of that programming language.

Think of it this way:

Pascal is real but you're not going to be examined on it much

Pseudocode is from the land of fearies (analysts and managers will like it) but you will examined on it heavily. There are better code documentation methods than pseudocode...

Either way, you're going to need to know both

so can you guys give me some tips on what to do in programming

do u guys still remember when the first time u touched this stuff?...

Pascal really isn't that hard. For example you might write in pseudocode:

<pre>

myInteger is a Integer

WHILE myInteger <> 23 

        Display "Guess the number, it's less than 50"

        myInteger = User Input

        IF myInteger = 23 THEN

                Display "Correct"

        ELSE

                Display "Incorrect"

        ENDIF

END WHILE

</pre>

You'd write in Pascal:

<pre>

[b]var[/b]

  myInteger: Integer;

[b]begin[/b]

    [b]while[/b] myInteger <> 23 [b]do[/b]

    [b]begin[/b]

        write('Guess the number, it''s less than 50');

        readln(myInteger);

        [b]if[/b] myInteger = 23 [b]then[/b]

            writeln('Correct')

        [b]else[/b]

            writeln('Incorrect');

    [b]end;[/b]

[b]end.[/b]

</pre>

I do actually remember how I started programming, a bit over two years ago I was learning HTML, it had a section on JavaScript, that got me interested and so I got a book on JavaScript.

Started programming in Pascal in Year 9, got bored with it by half-way through the year. Got Delphi from school, wrote a Towers of Hanoi game - http://www.geocities.com/towersofhanoi. Towers of Hanoi is an interesting project actually, 'cause I have about 5 builds there so you (and me) can see how I learnt more programming techniques over 6 months.

Once you know how to program in one (or two) languages, the rest seem comparatively easy - C++, Object Pascal, VB, they're all similar in design. So now it's not to difficult for me to program in

  • Turbo Pascal
  • Delphi/Object Pascal
  • Some C++ (don't much like C, C++ is OK)
  • Visual Basic (to a point, like it less still)
  • JavaScript/JScript (which lends itself to JScript ASP...)
  • PHP (much better than CGI Perl, yuck!)

need to learn C# - no time :(, black-listed Java ages ago.

Once you know the ins and outs of a language you actually get pull code of of your mouth :D, without much trouble. Sure the Windows API is BIG, but that's what the Internet is for - finding code...

Anyway, about.com used to have a TP site but it's gone now, still Borland have a site http://www.borland.com/pascal/pascalnet.html that might help you in your quest to deceipher Pascal :p

Incidentally, your program to sum two numbers looks like this

<pre>

[b]program[/b] SumInts;



[b]var[/b]

    Int1, Int2, Total: Integer;



[b]begin[/b]

    Write('Enter the first integer: ');

    Readln(Int1);

    Write('Enter the second integer: ');

    Readln(Int2);

    Total := Int1 + Int 2;

    Writeln('The total of the two numbers is: ', Total);

[b]end.[/b]

</pre>

there we have it!

Just wondering, what school are you going to? We have to do VB, haven't even started yet. How I feel for the non-programmers...

/rant :o

P.S. Newest project is at http://www.enfiladestudios.com (well, with Zoodboog ;) )

edit - code mistake

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C++ has a pretty significant drawback... keeping C compatibility! ;)

The D programming language looks promising. www.digitalmars.com

It's horrible because it isn't plain language. It would be nice if it was, but the "version" we are taught at school isn't just a "handy tool to sketch ideas" but attempts to be a structured language which has numerous syntax rules that contradict most "real" programming languages (such as = for both assigning and testing values). I have nothing against writing down rough algorithms or ideas on a piece of paper, I just hate this "glorified" version we are taught at school.

I see. I guess that could be a real beotch. The pseudocode I was taught was just used to rough out basic logic and it was plain english. Bummer.

I meant significant in size, enterprise stuff, or something like a manufacturing process control software. You know, big and complex. Sorry I didn't make that clear. I understand that for smaller apps where you or even a few people are writing everything, flowcharting isn't really necessary. I know I don't use them for personal projects. For academic purposes, and if you plan on pursuing programming for a living, it is a good practice to keep. Projects you may have worked on may not be always kept up by you, and there are many times that you'll inherit code that you didn't write, but have to maintain.

16, eh... damn! I didn't even like computers when I was 16.

Your project looks interesting. I have a friend that might find that useful. What kind of database does it use? Can it scale?

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man i love u guys

i go to all saints senior casula

near liverpool

hmm well theres alot of jargon talk

and whats syntax

i get soo deluded in jargon

talk

if u guys wanna post sumthing if its ok

can u put in brackets what the terms mean

i mean i gave never touched this stuff b4

ok this is what we did as a class and then u would see how slow we are

and like where do u find the commands like 'else'

how can u just pull that out of ur ass and noe what that means?..

program Convert decimal to binary;

uses;

wincrt

var

decinumber,remainder,whole:intergers;

begin

decinumber: = 0;

remainder: = 0;

whole: = 0;

write('Please enter a number');

readln(decinumber);

repeat

begin

remainder: =decinumber mod2;

whole=decinumber div2;

writeln(remainder);

decinumber=whole

end;

until whole=0;

end.

i mean where it says repeat and upwards

i dont get why

and in the beginning my teacher said we must set the intergers to zero

but why?

isnt it already sett?..

and in the bit where its begin

reamainder collen

whats the collen mean?

and mod 2

and div 2?

wtf

they said mod means modules =remainder

and div is divide

but whats with the '2'?..

and yeah gees im soo getting lost

and i dont wanna screw my hsc up because of software

but i wanan do good

becoz im very tenacious in computers

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Do you have a textbook for this class? All these things are defined in the language which you should be able to reference in your textbook, or the helpfile.

The word else is what is known as a keyword and is used in if... else control flow. It is a word that the compiler recognizes. It is how you control logical determinations. For instance, you determine if your favorite tv show is on by using a logical control.

Ex.

if the time is 6:00P.M. turn on channel 3 and watch Eastenders, otherwise (else) go have a beer.

When you declare a variable, it is unitialized. In other words, the compiler sees the declaration, allocates memory for the variable based on the data type( in remainders case, an integer ), and uses the name you assign it as the reference to the memory. That memory is unitialized. It can contain anything. Basically, you don't know what is there until you initialize the variable by assigning it a value. Try declaring a variable and print it out on the command line without initializing it. You'll get something, but not zero.

mod means modulus or modulo.

mod 2 means return the remainder of x/2. That technique is used a lot to determine if a number is even or odd. Does that make sense?

div is for integer division.

div 2, just means divide x by 2 and it won't return an remainder.

The colon after remainder is actually := which is an assignment operator. It assigns a value to the variable remainder. In programming, the value on the left side of the := ( known as an LValue )is what takes the value of the statement on the right side ( known as an RValue ).

If you see just the = by itself, it is evaluting. Is x = y? Does that make sense?

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Originally posted by Winston

man i love u guys

i go to all saints senior casula

near liverpool

hmm well theres alot of jargon talk

and whats syntax

i get soo deluded in jargon

talk

if u guys wanna post sumthing if its ok

can u put in brackets what the terms mean

i mean i gave never touched this stuff b4

ok this is what we did as a class and then u would see how slow we are

and like where do u find the commands like 'else'

how can u just pull that out of ur ass and noe what that means?..

program Convert decimal to binary;

uses;

wincrt

var

decinumber,remainder,whole:intergers;

begin

decinumber: = 0;

remainder: = 0;

whole: = 0;

write('Please enter a number');

readln(decinumber);

repeat

begin

remainder: =decinumber mod2;

whole=decinumber div2;

writeln(remainder);

decinumber=whole

end;

until whole=0;

end.

i mean where it says repeat and upwards

i dont get why

and in the beginning my teacher said we must set the intergers to zero

but why?

isnt it already sett?..

and in the bit where its begin

reamainder collen

whats the collen mean?

and mod 2

and div 2?

wtf

they said mod means modules =remainder

and div is divide

but whats with the '2'?..

and yeah gees im soo getting lost

and i dont wanna screw my hsc up because of software

but i wanan do good

becoz im very tenacious in computers

First of all Winston, your coding is very bad... sorry to be honest... I am surprise it even compile properly... Any ways... Let me rewrite your code in a proper way so it's very easy to understand. If you write it jibberish, then it's hard to understand... ok here it is...

<pre>

01 |   PROGRAM Convert decimal to binary;

02 |   uses;

03 |   wincrt

04 |   VAR

05 |   

06 |   decinumber, remainder, whole:INTEGERS;

07 |   

08 |   BEGIN

09 |     decinumber := 0;

10 |     remainder := 0;

11 |     whole := 0;

12 |     WRITE ('Please enter a number: ');

13 |     READLN (decinumber);

14 |   

15 |     REPEAT

16 |       BEGIN

17 |         remainder := decinumber MOD 2;

18 |         whole = decinumber DIV 2;

19 |         WRITELN (remainder);

20 |         decinumber = whole

21 |       END;

22 |     UNTIL whole = 0;

23 |   END.

</pre>

The reason I put those numbers there is because it's easier to point out which line I am talking about... Pascal ofcourse cannot have those numbers but you do have to have proper tabulation tho... for reading purpose...

You asked why line 9-11 has to be initialized. Well the reason being is that in Pascal, it can grab garbage values and set it for the null constant integers. You don't want this to happen. So you have to initialize it. One more thing, if the constant is inside a loop, it can reset it's value back to zero when it jumps back to the initialization. Now if you did not include those three lines inside or outside of the loop, and not initialize it, you might encounter some problem. You can have some values that you know the computer is pulling it out of the hat. :) hehehe

MODulus is how many times it can be divided for a whole (integer) number. MOD is an inverse of DIV and vice-versa.

Hope this answer some question... :) Do proper code so you can learn faster and easier... if you teacher does not stress on how important that is, then they are not doing it right. :)

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weenur:

Originally posted by weenur

C++ has a pretty significant drawback... keeping C compatibility! ;)

The D programming language looks promising. www.digitalmars.com

Considering how soon C followed B, D is very, very late :o

Once a langauge is standarised, it becomes difficult to extend it to support new features that are devised. C++ certainly saw this, hence C#. Hopefully C# is able to hold its own for as long as C++ or longer (a non .NET compiler is a start...)

I see. I guess that could be a real beotch. The pseudocode I was taught was just used to rough out basic logic and it was plain english. Bummer.

Yes, our course is to write Pseudocode algorithms as Pascall programs, not very much looser than that - we have some flexibility with arrays, parameters and user input (as well as having mythical conditions like "MachineIsTurnedOn" - oh the pain!)

I meant significant in size, enterprise stuff, or something like a manufacturing process control software. You know, big and complex. Sorry I didn't make that clear. I understand that for smaller apps where you or even a few people are writing everything, flowcharting isn't really necessary.

It took 9 months to develop our program with several rewrites of key sections (for performance, scalability, userbility and to make it look nicer :) ). I think, looking back, more planning may have saved us time.

I can see uses for UML and flowcharts, even Pseudocode in some cases but never to write the program twice :o

Your project looks interesting. I have a friend that might find that useful. What kind of database does it use? Can it scale? [/b]

Each shooter is one .ini file with a section for each record. It works fine for a few hundred records. We did it that way 'cause of file size, ease of installation, and it's damn hard to test applications on NT4 (school testing, feedback from the project "coordinator" - teacher and Shooting Master) when your account is so restricted (now I have a VB program just to execute files). We accounted for this with the Archive tool that bundles up ancient records into a self-extracting .exe for later...

As I said, few hundred records is fine. A few hundred shooters is fine provided you don't want to see the "All" category (not prety, method is practicle given the nature of Shooting clubs in Australia)

You can add your own targets so it can even be adapted to Pistol shooting or Archery...

Winston:

(Krome and Weenur have beaten me, but you can read my explanation anyway)

First let's get your program looking better (I'm not doing your work btw).

<pre>

[b]program[/b] ConvertDecimalToBinary; 



[b]uses[/b]

    wincrt;



[b]var[/b]

    DeciNumber, Remainder, Whole : Integer; 



[b]begin[/b]

    DeciNumber := 0; 

    Remainder := 0; 

    Whole := 0; 

    write('Please enter a number '); 

    readln(DeciNumber); 

    [b]repeat[/b]

        Remainder := DeciNumber [b]mod[/b] 2; 

        Whole := DeciNumber [b]div[/b] 2; 

        writeln(Remainder); 

        DeciNumber := Whole;

    [b]until[/b] whole = 0; 

[b]end.[/b]

</pre>

OK, now I can read it :)

Now, it prints the binary read from bottom to top.

  • You're correct, there is no need to set the DeciNumber, Remainder or Whole to 0, they will be set during the course of the program. It's just good practise 'cause you will get strange errors if you try to do something to a variable that doesn't have its value set (the complex explanation is that it will have the value currently in memory of its address...)
  • div is Integer Division. That means that the result will be an Integer so that you can assign it to an Integer. If you use / the result could be a Real number so Pascal (being the nice and careful thing it is) won't compile.
  • mod does indeed stand for Modulus which is the same as Remainder. You probably did Mod Maths in Year 8 and have forgotten all about it. It will return the Remainder when dividing the two numbers. Therefore when you divide a number by "2", there can only be 2 results, "0" or "1". Hence you find the binary version of the number.

Programming algorithms is just maths. It helps if you did Advanced Maths in Years 8, 9 and 10. Helps even more if you're a Maths genious :D . I'm not, btw so when all else fails I start drawing on paper or leaving it 'til tomorrow.

Weenur #2:

I doubt he'd have a Pascal text book. And they're damn hard to find nowadays. The teacher might photocopy some sheets for them. Not very good situation.

Krome:

That wouldn't compile. I'd say he's just copied it out. I compiled it to make sure it was remotely correct.

btw, you don't need a begin..end pair around repeat..until

  • 0
Originally posted by hornetfighter

Krome:

That wouldn't compile. I'd say he's just copied it out. I compiled it to make sure it was remotely correct.

btw, you don't need a begin..end pair around repeat..until [/b]

If that last statement was for me, then let me say that the coding was all his.. hehehehee I was just trying to put it so it's easier to read... but I guess yours was an excellent way too...

  • 0
Originally posted by Krome

If that last statement was for me, then let me say that the coding was all his.. hehehehee I was just trying to put it so it's easier to read... but I guess yours was an excellent way too...

The first line was for you referring to the fact that Winston's code was wrong. You fixed it OK too.

My biggest annoyance with Pascal is the need for begin..end everywhere. Using it where it isn't need it will always get a response :D

  • 0

nahh teacher made the code i didnt

lol

i dont even noe where did he put that out his ass man..

fark...

all this maths BS

ok say i wanna make an app for adding numbers

how the hell would i noe what the command is

just like mod and div

  • 0
Originally posted by hornetfighter

The first line was for you referring to the fact that Winston's code was wrong. You fixed it OK too.

My biggest annoyance with Pascal is the need for begin..end everywhere. Using it where it isn't need it will always get a response :D

Oh ok... hehehe :) I was a bit clueless when I saw the original posted codes... but after I saw your revised coding, dang it bring back a lot of memory... I started remembering a lot more of Pascal... Thanks for bringing me back to the memory lane.. ehhehe :)

  • 0
Originally posted by Winston

nahh teacher made the code i didnt

lol

i dont even noe where did he put that out his ass man..

fark...

all this maths BS

ok say i wanna make an app for adding numbers

how the hell would i noe what the command is

just like mod and div

Try to find Pascal textbook and they will introdude you to the "reserved words" (meaning Pascal internal command syntax).

  • 0
Originally posted by Krome

Try to find Pascal textbook and they will introdude you to the "reserved words" (meaning Pascal internal command syntax).

Sorry to pre-empt you again but you raised an interesting point...

If you use the Heinemann (Allan Fowler) text book, there's "railroad" syntax-structure diagrams for Pascal at the back.

(Railroad diagrams are another useless part of our SDD course)

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    • First time clicking on a Sayan Sen article after he started making clickbait, vague headlines recently. Didn't read, just came here to say the headline doesn't look like very cheap, vague clickbait this time. Are you okay?
    • Good review, and yeah the benchmark breakdown is pretty clear but also a little messy in a good way. It’s kinda interesting to see where the RX 9070 GRE slides in between the 7800 XT and the 9070 XT , especially when it comes to AI tasks and Blender style workloads. The side by side with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 and 4070 makes it feel obvious just how competitive the mid range GPU scene has gotten lately, and that’s great for creators and gamers too since you can pick based on your priorities rather than only chasing one single thing.
    • That's it. I finally uninstalled Firefox because they often keep pushing buggy updates, only to test them later and make users suffer. No longer is it my alternative browser to Edge. What a waste of energy. Firefox is bad for the environment, just like Chrome (wasting RAM/energy).
    • Microsoft Weekly: new Surface, Windows 11 26H2, and more by Taras Buria This week's news recap is here, with Microsoft announcing Windows 11 version 26H2, launching new Surface devices powered by Snapdragon X2 processors, GTA VI preorder date and cover art, fresh Windows 11 preview builds, a quirky phone-sized e-reader with a physical dial, and more. Quick links: Windows 10 and 11 Windows Insider Program Updates are available Reviews are in Gaming news Great deals to check Windows 11 and Windows 10 Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions. Windows 11 version 26H2 is now official. Alongside Windows 11's new preview builds released this week, Microsoft confirmed version 26H2, which is coming later this year as an enablement package based on the same platform as versions 24H2 and 25H2. A newly published blog post details what IT admins should do to prepare for the upcoming launch. Next, we have new Windows 11 bugs. Users report that this month's security updates for Windows 11 cause all sorts of issues, including BitLocker bugs, OneDrive issues, black screens of death, and third-party integration in Office apps. Microsoft has not confirmed those yet, but it acknowledged other issues with its operating system. What Microsoft has confirmed is a bug where Recycle Bin delete prompts display internal file names instead of actual ones, and a year-old Windows JScript compatibility bug caused by security-focused engine changes. Moving to more positive news, Microsoft and Adobe are working on improving Windows performance in popular creative apps like Photoshop. Thanks to SPGO optimizations, users can expect up to 20% better performance. Finally, we have a few useful articles that can help you recover your PC or make it perform better. For one, we published a guide detailing what to do if your computer cannot boot after a clean Windows 11 install. There are two important steps you can try to get your system back to working in no time. Additionally, there is a more detailed guide on various CPU performance modes that could notably improve performance. Windows Insider Program Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week: Builds Canary Channel Builds 28120.2315 and 29613.1000 These two builds include a new built-in audio driver, improvements to audio Settings, and more. Dev Channel Builds 26300.8697 and 26220.8690 Not much is available here. Some File Explorer improvements, Start menu enhancements, bug fixes, and more. However, build 26300.8697 is now officially marked as version 26H2. Updates are available This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties. This week, Microsoft announced its newest Surface devices powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X2 processors. There is the 12th-gen Surface Pro and the 8th-gen Surface Laptop. Both devices feature little to no visual differences compared to their predecessors from 2024, and most changes hide inside, including a better processor, faster graphics, enhanced NPUs, and more. The Surface Laptop also received a new haptic trackpad. Mozilla is currently working on a major Firefox redesign, and earlier this week, it published a roadmap of upcoming features and highlights of the upcoming "Project Nova" rework. Files, one of the best file managers for Windows 10 and 11, has been updated in the Preview channel with a long-requested feature. Tree View is finally available in version 4.1.4, allowing you to quickly browse deeply nested folders without leaving the main view. In addition, the update improved the Windows Fonts folder, allowing you to preview each font without opening the default viewer. Rufus, another useful Windows 11 utility, also received a notable update. Version 4.15 arrived as beta with important fixes for silent Windows 11 installation. It also includes patches for ARM-based Windows PCs, OneDrive removal improvements, and more. Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting: Microsoft faces shareholder lawsuit over masking AI costs and slowing Azure growth Microsoft now allows you to tweak Visual Studio to new extremes Microsoft brings Planner Agent to all Microsoft 365 Copilot users Microsoft fixes one of Excel Copilot's most frustrating limitations Microsoft will finally let you sign in to Edge with a Google account Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week: NVIDIA 610.62 with support for Empulse and various fixes. Reviews are in Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week Earlier this week, we reviewed the DuRoBo Krono, a portable, phone-sized e-reader with some interesting physical controls. This device has an Apple Watch-like dial for page turning, frontlight adjustment, and more. Software is simple and no-nonsense, but it also lacks some useful features and customization. Overall, the device proved interesting, but not flawless. On the gaming side Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more. Forza Horizon 6 received two big updates this week. Alongside the Series 2 content update, developers pushed plenty of bug fixes and balancing tweaks. However, they also had to acknowledge the Eliminator CR-farming exploit and shut down the online mode temporarily. Luckily, only a few days later, another fix arrived, which re-enabled Eliminator and patched the exploit. Microsoft announced new games for Game Pass subscribers. Those include EA Sports FC 26, Junkster, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Abyssus, RV There Yet?, and more. Some existing games are leaving the catalog, so be sure to check out the full list here. New games are also available for GeForce NOW subscribers, and they include Embers of the Uncrowned Demo, Aphelion, Megastore Simulator, OPERATOR, Citizen Sleeper, and more. Rockstart Games had plenty of GTA-related news this week. For one, the company gave GTA V players another free update. Those still playing the game on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are no longer required to pay $40 to upgrade to the latest-gen version. More importantly, Rockstar Games revealed the GTA VI cover art and announced the preorder date. The Epic Games Store is giving away two games: Citizen Sleeper and Roboeat. These two titles are up for grabs until next Thursday, but if they are not up to your taste, you can always check out the latest Weekend PC Game Deal issue, which is usually full of discounts and specials that let you save a lot of money on new games. Great deals to check Every week, we cover many deals on different hardware and software. The following discounts are still available, so check them out. You might find something you want or need. GEEKOM X16 Pro at GEEKOM - $1,119.67 | 17% off Acer 4K Webcam for PC/Mac with All-Metal Unibody Sculpted - $59.99 | 14% off Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB - $369.99 | 42% off Nothing Ear Wireless Earbuds Bluetooth - $73.15 | 51% off PowerColor Reaper AMD Radeon RX 9070 16GB - $579.99 | 17% off This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.
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