Solved W.L.B. (with a lot of babbling)

Solved issue

wendy-lebaron

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<-- Hello everyone, distrohopper here.

Put this in this sub-forum (and not the "member introductions") because I'm going to be replying to threads which last post was earlier than March-2023. I don't like "necroing" topics.

Otherwise expect me to reply in other threads. Because I don't like creating them. Expect me to write walls-of-text. TL;DR it's your choice.
 


And a G'day to you, from DownUnder.

So explain to me the difference between starting a thread in Member Introductions and starting one in Off Topic if you don't like starting threads? o_O

(It's not hard to confuse me)

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Thank you for the introductions, gentlemen. :)

Wizard you shall see in the first few days. I'm going to ramble here in reaction to a few threads I have seen in Off-Topic. I could go on quite a bit.

To clarify: I am not a troublemaker. I have created a thread for Tuxbot to answer a few questions because I am a member of the QB64 Phoenix Forum. This could be easily verified.
 
"Birth of BASIC"
linux.org/threads/birth-of-basic.43959/

You guys don't know what you're missing. Try QB64 Phoenix Edition.

qb64phoenix.com/forum/index.php

(Fill in the rest of the web address. For the moment the "main" site redirects to the forum, that's why I write more of the address at the tail. Also new people might not be permitted to post complete web links until "trusted" later.)

For those impatient to be told right here: QB64 is a front end for g++ which accepts "scripts" written in BASIC that were compatible with the M$ products QuickBASIC v4.5, QBasic for MS-DOS, and to a lesser extent, M$ BASIC PDS v7.1 and Visual BASIC for MS-DOS. The original author, from the same country as one of your administrators, originally aimed at 100% compatibility with the interpreter-only QBasic. There is at least 95% support for Linux and MacOS although the focus is on Windows.

(Some people and sites insist there was a "later" QuickBASIC. They even call it improperly like "QuickBASIC v7.1" or "QB71". But that was only the QuickBASIC Extended editor/interpreter that was part of the Professional Development System, which also came with Programmers Workbench, the debugger Codeview and pretty much the same libraries and programming tools as Microsoft C, back in the early 1990's. One did less-complex programs in QBX with "extended" memory, that the regular QuickBASIC couldn't do. More complex programs requiring many source-code files were done with the Workbench-CodeView combination. The system was able to produce programs that ran in "protected mode" Windows and OS/2, while QuickBASIC couldn't.)

If you have some BASIC programs lying around give QB64PE a try, but please look over the source code first! Watch those endless loops without a way to break out of it with "escape" or other keypress! The old single-precision self-counting FOR... NEXT loops aren't going to work, must either use _DELAY which could be pensive, or inside a looping structure try "_LIMIT 20" or something like that. For example, study the original "NIBBLES.BAS" program that came with QBasic. It will have to be adjusted for PC's much faster than Intel 386SX and stuff like that.

Note that after the original programmer disappeared from the set, a few years passed until last year when there was a large quarrel and breakup. So now there's the Phoenix Edition which will hit v3.7 soon, and there's also the "official-dot-com" edition which is at v2.1. If you want to get serious with graphics, music and Unicode then Phoenix Edition is strongly recommended. If you don't much care about "Windowsisms" then the "official" version should be good enough but it hasn't seen as many updates, and programs using Phoenix Edition keywords and features won't be compatible. Of a certain interest, you could get fancy information, notification, save, open and input dialog boxes if Yad or Zenity were installed on your Linux system with QB64PE v3.4 and later. Not from "qb64-dot-com" offering. In the past it depended on "xmessage" which was ugly and tended to mess up depending on fonts installed in the system. Rendering text in graphics screens promises to be even faster with the upcoming release of Phoenix Edition!

No QB64 doesn't support object-oriented programming like Freebasic does, which is mostly good, but bad for example if you want to redefine the "MOD" operator so it "properly works" with negative dividends and/or divisors for some people. Freebasic also supports "real" pointers like C/C++ while in QB64 one has to use _MEM variables which could be clunky. Freebasic supports macros which are more graceful than those in C, while QB64 can't, cannot even have functions with constant expressions in a CONST statement such as "CONST CRLF = CHR$(13) + CHR$(10)" which sucks. QB64 has a primitive preprocessor, which allows it to recognize rudimentary "signal" variables like which version/release of QB64, operating system it was compiled on and 64-bit support, which sets console-only mode and disables the "mainwin", and which supports include files. Finally Freebasic executables which are console programs could be much smaller than those created by QB64 and might occupy less RAM. But don't expect any response out of "CHAIN", "COMMON SHARED", "DEF FN", "FIELD" and a few other outdated statements found in a lot of GW-BASIC and M$QuickBASIC programs in particular. "CALL INTERRUPT" doesn't work in QB64 but, for example there are functions like _MOUSEINPUT to handle the mouse. "INP" and "OUT" statements that were very necessary for cheap EGA graphics programming are emulated; they aren't recommended used in new programs (Windows limitation).

On Github there are a few hundred QB64 "repositories". More confusingly there's an AUR package for the last "dot-org" version which should never be considered! Always download the latest version of QB64, either from the link I provided above, or from "qb64-dot-com". Don't ask "what's the difference?", just download it and use it.

THIS JUST IN: QB64 Phoenix Edition v3.7 is out now! :D
 
"Anyone like classical music?"
linux.org/threads/anyone-like-classical-music.26004/

(This is a reply to a thread which has had Dec-2022 as the last reply so far.)

I really should listen more often to at least two albums I have.

One is J.S. Bach "Well-Tempered Clavier", done in the 1960's by some guy playing clavichord the entire album. I had to jack up the volume levels compared to too much electronic music in my collection LOL.

The other is by Claude Debussy, but only for one song, don't know what it's called. Don't know the performers of this album which is out on Panorama Records. This one song has percussion. It is about 8 or 9 minutes long, most amusing is the final minute, a few times it makes like it's ending ROFL.

I have three records by Steve Reich, the early one with "Is It Going to Rain?", "Come Out", "Piano Phase" LOL real creative for over 20 minutes, "Music for 18 Musicians" and "Reich Remixed". Disliked the remixes of "Piano Phase" and "18 Musicians" (the remixer was trying to force a straight beat on it), otherwise the best remix was done by Andrea Parker. It should have been a tie with "Come Out" remix by Ken Ishii but the latter used a rhythm in his presentation which was confusing to me. "I shall" or "Behind the Shadows" LOL remix by Mantronix was pretty good too.

I also have "Adagio For Strings" by Samuel Barber (had forgotten so I had to look it up) but as three electronic implementations especially the good one by William Orbit, as part of the record "Pieces in a Modern Style" from Madonna's record company Maverick LOL.

I also have "Understanding Wildlife" by Shuttle358 (Mille Plateaux) which I believe is very good electro-classical. Clicks and simple tones for most of it which would no doubt annoy big fans of European classical music.

There are a few others but can't name them straight away. I like ambient electronica which is like classical music done in a fun way. My two favorite artists in electronic music scene of the 1990's are Autechre and μ-Ziq. The latter's work I liked better before "Royal Astronomy" album in 1998.

Autechre, well, some stuff is too experimental such that I once imagined one of the guys having a daughter who barged into the basement discovering some of their unreleased stuff. Really wanted to know how women think of these guys and their music. Like very much the "vletrmx21" which appeared on "Garbage" E.P. and on the second disk of "Trirepetae". Really good were a couple of songs on "LP5" record out in 1998 that would interest the most tolerant classical ears. Quite a surprise was "Quaristice" from 2009 which I ordered on CD from Warp Records store. After enough ruthless beats and bass, there is even more ruthless beats and bass there LOL, but a couple of gems which are easier listening.

One more thing. I don't like their page on LastFM. LOL.
 
"Where did your username come from?"
linux.org/threads/where-did-your-username-come-from.31362/

Regularly I don't use the one on this forum. There is another name. All I will say about it is that it has a bit to do with Garuda. If you don't understand you should read "The Odyssey" by Homer, it's one of the "protagonists". Nothing else shall be known about it.

<-- Otherwise this is just a name I invented. "Lebaron" comes from Chrysler Lebaron, an American car from the 1980's. Rather liked the appearance of that Lebaron GTS, while Chrysler brand weren't all about luxury.

Yeah I'm a fan of X-23, since last year as soon as I discovered Wolverine had a daughter. But this "Wendy" is a cousin I invented. Was supposed to be a clone-sister (facepalm) what a mess. Still this "Wendy" is supposed to have one claw on each limb extremity. I do my own pictures of "Laura" as well as "Wendy".

However I did pick "Wendy" as name on purpose, because it has to do with a very popular game on Nintendo Entertainment System! It refers to the other model of Chrysler Lebaron that I didn't vaguely describe. What is at the end of the third "world"? (Which was a PITA and even had a fish that could swallow whole the protagonist.) LOL supposedly the bad guy had seven children, one of them was a girl. But it was too ordinary to have "Wendy Koopa" as username. ;)
 
"Arr! Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day, mateys!"

Facebook had a setting for that for the whole site which turned me off. Sorry but it's not very professional.

Otherwise the MLB Pittsburgh Pirates are doing darned well this year, while the St. Louis Cardinals are in last place and with the worst record in the National League! Let's see how long it lasts.

Too bad Pirates are not playing better lately. (Injuries, always injuries...)

===

"Mint Police. Really?"

Couldn't stop laughing at the first post of this.

I'm willing to believe there is "greenkopf" as I call it. There is a whole forum on this site for Linux Mint which is great evidence of it.

===

"Remember the kerfuffle with the University of Minnesota?"

Saw this topic title, then the date the topic started. So naturally I thought it was about Slackware. :)

===

"Karen"

REDDIT!!!

(Put here any picture of somebody angrily shaking his/her fist at the sky.)

That site poisoned my mind forever.

There are good women in the world named Karen who don't deserve this. Pick on someone else! That was the name of a chapter of a joke book I had, the "target" were called "Smogarians".
 
"Arr! Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day, mateys!"

Facebook had a setting for that for the whole site which turned me off. Sorry but it's not very professional.

Otherwise the MLB Pittsburgh Pirates are doing darned well this year, while the St. Louis Cardinals are in last place and with the worst record in the National League! Let's see how long it lasts.

Too bad Pirates are not playing better lately. (Injuries, always injuries...)

I can't help but wonder if you're using a bot script for posting. If that's the case, I can understand why you would blacklist threads in the Member Introductions section and start one in Off Topic instead, in order to avoid turning the Member Introductions area into an Off Topic space. However, it's also possible that I might be reading too much into the situation.
 
Before joining this forum I have checked out the "Off Topic" subforum for places I wanted to reply to, and kept track of them and my responses in a document in a word processor. Here I am replying to topics that are more than two months old because I don't like "bumping" them after many months they have gone without reply. Especially if I have to reply with a couple of sentences, it's not good form for me to bring an "old" thread to the top of the stack only for that. If this "renewed" thread contained outdated information or something else not relevant for the current time, it could annoy other people.

Also I tend to reply with more than a couple of sentences. :O
 
Before joining this forum I have checked out the "Off Topic" subforum for places I wanted to reply to, and kept track of them and my responses in a document in a word processor. Here I am replying to topics that are more than two months old because I don't like "bumping" them after many months they have gone without reply. Especially if I have to reply with a couple of sentences, it's not good form for me to bring an "old" thread to the top of the stack only for that. If this "renewed" thread contained outdated information or something else not relevant for the current time, it could annoy other people.

Also I tend to reply with more than a couple of sentences. :O
Am I going crazy, or is my assumption from my previous post actually correct? I'd appreciate any input or clarification on this matter.

@KGIII
 
Am I going crazy, or is my assumption from my previous post actually correct? I'd appreciate any input or clarification on this matter.

I don't think they're a bot, just a bit unusual. Linux attracts a variety of folks. I'm pretty sure they're harmless. Well, mostly harmless. They're not really breaking any rules, just some conventions.

I did some searching but I can't find him.

There was this Russian guy who posted on SMF forums. It didn't matter too much what the subject of the forum was, it just had to be an SMF set up. He spoke perfectly fine English - except he didn't. He pretty much decided to rewrite English from the view of a techie. If you paid attention long enough, you could kind of speak his language and understand what he was saying. Most folks just ignored him, but I always found him entertaining.
 
It's perfectly fine, and if you're comfortable with it, so am I. I do get a strong sense that they might be a bot, but ultimately, the decision is yours on how to proceed.

There was this Russian guy who posted on SMF forums. It didn't matter too much what the subject of the forum was, it just had to be an SMF set up. He spoke perfectly fine English - except he didn't. He pretty much decided to rewrite English from the view of a techie. If you paid attention long enough, you could kind of speak his language and understand what he was saying. Most folks just ignored him, but I always found him entertaining.
That's an interesting anecdote! It seems like the Russian guy had a unique way of expressing himself on SMF forums.
 
(EDIT)
I am this user on QB64 Phoenix Forums.
qb64phoenix.com/forum/member.php?action=profile&uid=192
 
Last edited:
Settle down...

We've had some bot issues in the past and your posting style is outside the norm. Move on to positive things everyone.
 
Settle down...

We've had some bot issues in the past and your posting style is outside the norm. Move on to positive things everyone.
I've settled down and haven't even uttered any negative words. Like I mentioned before, I'm fine if you are. I was genuinely confused about the posting style, but I've moved past that. Additionally, I'm not quite sure what the person is talking about, as they seem to be condescending and discuss unclear topics, such as "write something into my profile but you're not allowed?" Regardless, that issue is now on your plate to handle. :-b
 
I've decided to block you.

@KGIII My sincere apologies. I will edit my earlier post but I will leave the thing about the other forum I belong to.
 
Like I mentioned before, I'm fine if you are.

They pass the sniff test and aren't breaking any rules.

I will edit my earlier post but I will leave the thing about the other forum I belong to.

At the end of the day, remember that it's just a forum - with a bunch of people who have different views, different expectations, and different experiences. But, it's just a forum. There are far more pressing things when it comes to investing emotional energy. (Something I think we can all be reminded of once in a while.)
 

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