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View Full Version : Where are the String Functions?



circuitpro
- 12th June 2009, 18:09
This is such a good compiler, I can't help but wonder WHY it doesn't support Strings?! There are a lot of applications that would be so much easier to build if you didn't have to 'roll your own' string handling routines!!

This last project I'm working on is making me take a serious look at Swordfish, but after spending years and years with PBP, I just wish melabs would give us a break, and make some effort at strings.:confused:

Bruce
- 12th June 2009, 23:23
PBP does support strings. Have you looked at the STR modifiers for LCDOUT, SERIN2,
SEROUT2, DEBUG, DEBUGIN, OWIN, OWOUT, etc? That's definitely string support...;o}

What exactly do you need string support for that it doesn't have? Just loading values
into an array?

P.S. Swordfish is an excellent compiler if you only need to work with 18F series, but it's
a far cry from being as simple to use as PBP.

Free_Flow
- 13th June 2009, 14:50
I think Proton basic has strings

Its much like Pbpro

circuitpro
- 14th June 2009, 01:44
In their own manual, melabs says that PBP does not support strings, and everybody here pretty much knows that. I'm just wishing/crying out loud that I didn't have to go learn another compiler all over! To the extent that pbp 'HANDLES' strings, I think it's more along the lines of supporting LCD's, and a serial port than strings themselves.

And, no, it's not just loading arrays, because what's loaded, needs to be UNloaded, and parsed, and trimmed, and concatenated, and compared, etc. etc. I must have looked at 7 or 8 different PIC basic compilers in the last several weeks, and then you get even more steamed up... IF THEY CAN DO IT, WHY CAN'T MELABS? Too hard? I love PBP, but on some jobs, it would just be much easier if there weren't all these ridiculous little for-next loops to do simple compares, TrimLeft, TrimRight, UpperCase, etc.

I'm just expressing a wish that we'd get some of these functions, but not really expecting it. I know that you can do in one command in pbp what takes 7 or 8 lines in other compilers... oh well. I'm all done bawling about it now - till next time.