NilObject

People experience wonderful things whose code hasn’t changed in a long time.
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Did you know that you can put [code]Dim foo as Integer[/code] tags into the feedback system to get a report to syntax highlight?

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Ever wished there were a shorter feedback URL? Or, did someone mention a bug ID without the full URL? No fears, just simply type support.realsoftware.com/feedback/<BUG_ID>. It will automatically expand to the full URL.

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I’ve uploaded a new version of the RB-PHP Utils. It’s mainly bug fixes, and I recommend it to anyone who is already using the source. One new feature is the ability to automatically capitalize keywords to the “proper” case.

Enjoy!

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Through the joys of link-backs, I found a new blog The Retro Project whose aim is to learn about writing an emulator using REALbasic. I’ve always been interested in creating an emulator, and additionally know how discouraging it is to have a blog without an audience. So if you’re interested in watching this project progress or even pitching in, head over to RetroProject.org and join in on the fun.

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While I don’t think Pause would make a good addition to the language, there are situations I know that it’s useful. However, if you’re not writing a threaded application, it isn’t obvious how to do it except for something like this:

Sub Pause( seconds As Double )
  Dim target As Integer = Ticks + seconds * 60
  While target > Ticks()
  Wend
End Sub

There are cons to this approach: it eats up CPU cycles, and it’s horribly inefficient. It’s much easier to write:

Sub Pause( seconds As Double )
  App.SleepCurrentThread( seconds * 1000 )
End Sub

Voila, one line of code that sleeps your app to the system, or lets other threads run in the background. Simple and elegant.

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