Suggestion - Subroutines and Functions

[JaunLukePicard]

As I am getting used to Basic4Android I have to say I love it. There are a couple of things I would like to ask about and possiblly get implimented in a future release...

Subroutines - right now as I understand it I can use a SUB as either a Function or Subroutine. I can opt to have it return a value or not. While this is great I also note that I can get confused easily if I happen to be doing other things for a while and then come back to my B4A project.

My first suggection is to offer that for a SUB the 'Call' statement can be optional. So for example. If you were calling a Subroutine you called 'mySub' in code you would see:

Call mySub

This would immediately tell you that you are calling a Subroutine. As code becomes more complex having the option of placing 'Call' before the Sub would make things much more clear for the developer.

One other possible suggestion I have is to have Subs broken down into Functions and Subroutines (Func/Sub).

Functions indicate that a special type of sub will be used in a formula and may have a return value (as subs do now in B4A).

A Subroutine would not return a value. It is called and actions are performed.

While subs now work well if a Developer works on several different types of projects (VB.NET, C#, Java, etc.) and then comes back to B4A wanting to make a change in code having the disctinction of Sub and Funct make re-aclimating yourself easier to working with the code.

So when you see "call mySub" you know it is a subroutine. If you see "ColumnWidth = myHeight() * 4" you know that you creayed a Function called myHeight.

 

[Smee]

A Subroutine would not return a value. It is called and actions are performed.

Would than not meaning a big re-write to existing code if it is changed and needs re-compiling?

 

[stevel05]

You could always leave a comment for yourself at the expense of one extra comment character,

i.e.

mysub 'Call

especially if it's optional as if you forget to use call, you wouldn't know anyway.

and when you see an assignment such as

ColumnWidth = myHeight * 4

you know it's a function.

The signature of a function is different to a sub in that you should specify the type of the returned value. i.e.

 myFunc(val1 As Int, val2 As Int) As Int

So that would be another clue when you come back to it.

 

[NeoTechni]

Would than not meaning a big re-write to existing code if it is changed and needs re-compiling?

Yes.

I would suggest making the program simply replace function with sub. Either in the IDE or compiler

 

[JaunLukePicard]

Would than not meaning a big re-write to existing code if it is changed and needs re-compiling?

Nope. NeoTechni mentioned that B4A could replace the desired "Sub" to "Function" either automatically or prompted as the project is loaded/converted. A comment before the line is another possibility I suppose too.

What I currently do at this point is to prefix the name of the Sub with either "fnc" or "sub" like:

subPopulateScrollView or fncPopulateScrollView

Basically if I am returning a value I use "fnc" and if I am not I use "sub" as a coding standard. I use VisualBasic.NET quite a bit so when I switch over to B4A and haven't worked on a project for a little while I have to "catch" myself and remember the changes. So now I use the same coding standard in both VB.NET and B4A.

 

[stevel05]

That sounds like a better solution all round.

Sent from my Hero using Tapatalk