PPL News.

[kornalius]

Hi,

I would like to inform you all that PPL (Pocket Programming Language) release is going to be delayed by a couple weeks. I am working very hard right now to make everything ready for a beta release. The beta release should be out very soon.

Here is a list of what I am working on and what is ready so far:

- 30-40 pages (not finished) user manual in Word.

- Conditional compiling #ELSEIF switch being added. The rest is all there #IFDEF, #ELSE, #ENDIF

- PPL text editor written in PPL. Will be ready this week.

- Whole PPL interface written in PPL. Conversion from C version to PPL still to be done.

- Need to remove any debugging information for release. This will be done next week.

- Added a linker last week to include special external function declarations in the main compiled file. The PPL editor is about 2k right now. So instead of having to include a ton of files with your program you will just to distribute the 2k file with the PPL.exe program.

- func statement for functions and proc for procedures. I only had proc to this date. This will be fixed this week.

- New high-level menu functions and control functions. To be done in the next few weeks.

- More samples to be included. In the next few weeks.

That is just a short list of what is going to be done in the next couple weeks and what I have done lately. There is a lot more going on, including debugging and a lot of testing.

I hope PPL will be used by a lot of people and I wish to make it a very strong product and provide as much support I can give.

Regards,
kornalius

[hm]

I've seen you quite active in this forum over the last couple of weeks...

What problem are you trying to solve with your new language? What is easier in PPL than in VC++ or any of the .NET languages that run on the PPC? When would I want to use it?

Thanks,
HM

[kornalius]

PPL is small language that do a lot. It is not intended to replace eVc or any other compilers. It is a nice alternative that allow people to code on their PPC and compiling is totally transparent to the developer. Also, a lot of the usual TEDIOUS C / C++ coding has been simplified to higher-level functions and mecanism. PPL comes with full garbage collection and string allocation is done dynamicly.

A simple window UI can be coded in PPL in just 2 or 3 lines of code. PPL also offer an easy game API. There is no variable types in PPL. You can code a nice game or program right on your PocketPC in a matter of minutes instead of hours with C/C++. PPL incorporates features from Pascal and Basic with a C-like syntax.

regards,
kornalius

[PointOfLight]

This sounds like it could be interesting. Do you need any beta testers?

[kornalius]

I will have an open beta very soon, anybody will be able to download it while it will be in beta.

Regards,
kornalius

[PointOfLight]

Cool. Do you have a web site by chance?

[egarayblas]

Hi!

I'm just curious, will I be able to bring my VC++ project and continue coding on my PPC using PPL and vice versa? Anyway, PPL sounds amazing!

- Erick

[kornalius]

PPL is not a compatible with the C or C++ language. However it uses a syntax that is close to the C language. So, technicaly yes, you can bring your project to PPL but you will have to modify your code a bit. Ex: variable names in PPL have to have an $ or % after their name, proc/func are the statements used for void, etc... Btw PPL is not compatible with C++ code.

And thanks all for your interest in PPL.

Here is a little code example of a PPL code to show you the syntax used.

Code: Select all

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12	s$ = 10; ShowMessage(s$); s$ = "STRING"; ShowMessage(s$); i$ = 30; s$ = i$; ShowMessage(s$); i$ = 10 + 20 / 2; ShowMessage(i$);
	12 lines; 0 keywds; 5 nums; 24 ops; 1 strs; 0 coms    Syntactic Coloring v0.4 - Dan East

And here is another to show string manipulation:

Code: Select all

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12

s$ = "This is a string";    // Set string s$. ShowMessage(s$); delete(s$, 6, 2);       // Delete from character 6 for a length of 2. insert("was", s$, 6);       // Insert "was" in s$ at character position 6. ShowMessage(s$); ShowMessage(s$[6]);     // Show character value at position 6. ShowMessage(mid(s$, 6, 3)); // Show from character 6 for a length of 3. ShowMessage("This is "+"a test!");  // Show how to concatenate strings together.

12 lines; 1 keywds; 6 nums; 34 ops; 4 strs; 6 coms    Syntactic Coloring v0.4 - Dan East

Regards,
Kornalius

[kornalius]

PointOfLight: Sorry no I don't have a site right now, but there is a PocketMatrix forum that is waiting for me here. I need a release before they will allow to post there.

Regards,
Kornalius

[mmtbb]

Hi,

I am very, very interested in your software. However, what is your pricing plan. Also, what controls are in your program? Thanks

[kornalius]

mmtbb: There is no price decided yet but I am leaning towards 39.95$ to 49.95$ range but it is not something I am going to decide until the beta is pretty much over and the engine is stable enough. Sorry, but I don't understand your second question?


Is there any recommendation on what site I should sell PPL through? Handago, PocketGear?

Regards,
Kornalius

[mmtbb]

Controls = TextBox, Grid, ListBox etc.

Thanks

[kornalius]

Oh yeah, sorry! Of course there is. They are all there and I have a few simple functions to create them and set their properties. Creating UI interface in PPL is a lot easier than C too!

I am also planning on writting a visual interface builder for the official release. I hope I will have the time.

I will post an example early next week to show you how easy it is.

Regard,
Kornalius

[mmtbb]

will it support frames like frame controls

[kornalius]

Sorry I am not familliar with frames, I come from the PC (Delphi) world. I don't see frames in the regular windows styles (like buttons, list ...) so therefore they will not be included in the beta release. After the initial bugs fixed, I will look further into frames and see if I can include them.

Regards,
Kornalius