Lord Authors Newsletter Issue #9 - Supplement #1
Prepared on November 30, 2001.
Subjects:  Virtual Pascal compiler program.
Information Source:  Fidonet LORD Echo, Messages #454-455.
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Can vpascal be used to create lord programs with? Any language can be
used to create doors, igms, utils, bbs softwares, recipe keepers, black
books, hat organizers.. Any language can be used to create most any
program (programmers: I know i'm being really generic here. aka,
don't be pestering me with details. So cobol probably cant be used to
create an igm with.. :p)

The trick with vpascal, or any language for that matter, is to know the
language. Virtual Pascal, for example, can only create Win32 and OS/2
binaries. It has limited support for creating *nix binaries (and I think
dos, but cant rememebr off hand). Soo.. knowing that you can only create
win32 and os2 programs, youll have to limit your target audience that
way.

As far as sources to learn Pascal from.. There are tons. Granted, Im
talking the metaphorical description of a certain metric unit, but I
digress. When looking for research material to help you learn a
language, I always recommend 3 things. (these recommendations work for
any language. not just pascal)

1) books. You cant go wrong with books. The only hard part here is to
find an author that speaks your language. Meaning.. If youre methodical,
maybe speech pattern, or maybe you like tons of examples.. Find an
author that writes the way you read. Youll pick up the information a lot
easier.

2) Source. Source. Source. I cant stress this one enough. Friends call
me a, euh, well, I cant use those words here, but their words refer to
my never ending search for sources that actually work, and are in
languages I dont know. One of the easier ways of learning a language,
Ive found, is to take a source that actually compiles and then modifying
it bit by bit.. Modify, compile, run, see what it does.. Modify,
compile, run.. repeat.. Other people's source code is an easy way to
learn, as well as strengthen your ability to debug, strengthen your own
style, and learn the principles behind the language.

3. Another good resource is 'someone else'. Youre working on some
program.. Run into a problem, and cant figure it out.. Borrow their
eyes, and see if they can spot the problem. You learn from their
experience. Need ideas on what to do in a funny situation? Ask someone
with a bit more knowledge and experience. Only hard part about using
'someone else': they might not want to be leaned on. If you pester him
too much, he wont ever help you.. So always be thankful.

Something Ive noted over the past 6-7 years.. The priciples are always
the same.. The ideas behind how you did something in pascal will be the
same as the ideas behind how you did it in c, perl, assembly, tcl, etc
etc etc. Because of my work on lordcfg's player/monster editor engine, I
was able to fix a problem of my employer's in 15 minutes.. They had been
trying for 6 months.. I was hired, fixed it in minutes flat (and made
quite a good impression on my employer).. Because the ideas were the
same, I was able to transfer work from pascal to embedded perl.. Its
cool like that.

Since were talking Virtual Pascal in this echo message,  I should point
out that Pascal is Pascal. Its not (well, lets say shouldnt) be defined
by the compiler you use. Granted, the virtual pascal compiler will
support more stuff than the turbo pascal compiler does, but thats
because of the added win32 and os2 support.. Stuff was added to vpascal
for that.. But the syntax is still the same. Youve still got to end each
line with a semi-colon, and the last "end" with a period. pos(),
assign(), and strings all still work teh same way.

If youre looking for recommendations for research materials.. I can only
say whats been good to me. I started out with 2 books.. "Turbo Pascal
Programming 101" by Charles Calvert (isbn: 0-672-30285-3) and "Turbo
Pascal 7: The Complete Reference" by S. O'Brien and S. Nameroff
(isbn:0-07-881793-5)..

These books will be hard to find.. So maybe my guide would be of help..
"BBS Coders Guide to Pascal Programming".. http://www.elysoft.net ->
downloads -> source code.. ITs written in a speech pattern style (i.e.
its like Im talking to you)

If youre looking for source.. http://www.lordlegacy.org/alexie .. Follow
the links, and grab the sources you want.

If youre looking for virtual pascal specific source, Id start with Mike
Hodgson's "freedoor".. its a doorkit written in virtual pascal that
supports the door32 format. Its available at http://www.elysoft.net ->
downloads -> source.

End of file.  CC9-LADY.TXT.  Author: Donald Tidmore.
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