It's been quiet around here for too long. I hope you all have started to recover after Christmas.
Currently I'm trying to recover from a hard drive crash. VF's source files are pretty much up-to-date on the B6SW.COM server. However, I lost all of my workflow-related batch files and will need to rewrite these.
VF's syntax is about undergo a pretty drastic change in a few areas. I've been unhappy with the syntax of the PROPERTY statement and the redundency between the NEW and BEGIN statements.
I gave it some thought and decided to eliminate the BEGIN statement. Its functionality will be subsumed by the NEW statement.
| Old BEGIN Statement | New NEW Statement | |
|---|---|---|
| Begin Menu #File, "File"
"Open", DoOpen "Exit", DoExit End Menu | New Menu #File, "File"
Begin "Open", DoOpen "Exit", DoExit End New | Menu #File, "File"
Begin "Open", DoOpen "Exit", DoExit End Menu |
The PROPERTY statement will receive a similar treatment.
| Old PROPERTY Statement | New PROPERTY Statement |
|---|---|
| Property FullName As String Does Get, Set
On Get On Set value End Property | Property FullName As String Does Get, Set
Begin On Get On Set Ennd Property |
In both statements, the BEGIN clause can take optional code. For the NEW statement, BEGIN can be followed by the default class type when the compiler may have trouble inferring the correct type. For the PROPERTY statement, BEGIN can take a parameter list when the property represents an array, and replaces the OPTIONAL clause for this purpose.
So what do you think?