Differences compared to SWORDFISH

[skartalov]

I've been using SF compiler for a while, and I started to love it. Now I would like to use FIREWING as well, but why do you make the language syntax so different?
I mean:
IF....EndIF now i End If, also while, wend, and many more...
Now I have to put ":" between operators if I want to put more on the same line and so on (like I did before on PicBasic)...

And another thing, when I mark operator in SF and hit F1, I get help, now I have to search the library reference for it.


And why do you have to change the INCLUDE with IMPORTS?


It is so confusing!

[David John Barker]

> why do you make the language syntax so different?

The Swordfish language was a mix of BASICs, PASCAL etc. It was made up. Firewing follows closely the VB.NET syntax so it's more standards based. For example, take a look at some of these examples:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/752y8abs.aspx
http://www.dotnetperls.com/structure
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/vb.net/vb.net_functions.htm

and look at the sample code - 3 different website resources with code that looks like Firewing! If you learn Firewing, you are picking up the non-class based parts of VB.NET. If you know VB.NET, moving to Firewing is very easy. Obviously there are differences, but "C" is a standard that you need to tweak between systems. I've had people in the past say they don't use Swordfish, PROTON, PicBASIC etc because it's not a standard language like "C" and you cannot transfer the skills used. Well, now you have Firewing which uses a standard approach to BASIC. Skills you lean with Firewing can be used in other domains.

> now I have to search the library reference for it.

It's easier for me to maintain a free compiler in this way.

> And why do you have to change the INCLUDE with IMPORTS?

See above. I hope this clears things up for you. If you have any more questions, please just ask...

[roger]

Hi David,

Thanks for your references. Initially I was slow to get into Firewing16, simply because I had never used the Visual Basic syntax, and therefore Firewing's programming language was strange to me, something which the Firewing reference manual did little to dispel.

However I found this very good tutorial in one of your references:-

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/vb.net/vb ... torial.pdf

I also managed to get hold of an old copy of Visual Basic 2008, which is apparently very similar to VB 2010, but without the classes, (I believe), and that has also been of general background use.

So with a little bit more practise I should be ready for Firewing32.

I currently program Pic32s in XC32, and these beauties really hum along.

Hope that helps someone

Roger