Re: passing settings byRef

[Karl Reinl <karl.reinl@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Am Mittwoch, dem 03.06.2026 um 22:21 +0100 schrieb Bruce Steers:
> 
> 
> On Wed, 3 Jun 2026 at 18:05, Karl Reinl <karl.reinl@xxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > Salut Benoît,
> > 
> > sorry, but I don’t understand the difference between calling
> > fDialogColor and fDialogFile. Why can settings be passed to
> > fDialogFile
> > but not to the other two?
> > (see attached project)
> > -- 
> > Amicalement
> > Charlie
> > 
> 
> 
> You need to better understand how to use Byref and also when (or not)
> you might need it.
> 
> For starters as the wiki states to use Byref it must be used at both
> ends.  Ie, you use ByRef in the class methods as you have in the Run
> functions, but you must also use it in the calling command
> 
> The calling command should look more like this DialogFont.Run(ByRef
> Me.cfg, "FIDE", "", True)
> 
> But i do not think you have to use ByRef at all for your needs here.
> Passing the Settings object as an argument should work as expected as
> you read the object to write to it's members. (I hope that makes
> sense)
> 
> Consider this ...
> 
> Public myNumber As Integer
> Public myArray As New String[]
> 
> 
> Public Sub PassVariable(ByRef Writable As Boolean)  ' ByRef is needed
> here AND in the calling command.
> 
>   Writable += 10
> 
> End
> 
> Public Sub PassObject(Obj As String[])  ' Objects are accessed (read)
> and can be manipulated.  only a direct write to the object is not
> possible.
> 
>   Obj.Add("A New Item")
> 
> End
> 
> Public Sub Main()
> 
>   PassVariable(ByRef myNumber)  ' here ByRef is needed to write the
> value back to the myNumber variable. Note "ByRef" is in the calling
> command and also in the method
> 
>   PassObject(myArray)  ' As An object myArray can be manipulated
> without using ByRef
> 
> End
> 
> I think in your program passing a Settings object should not need to
> use ByRef.
> 
> Someone else might be able to explain the exact reason for this
> difference and where you do or do not need ByRef.
> 
> As to why it is only failing with some of your classes i could not
> say. sorry.
> 
> Respects
> BruceS
> 

Oh, man, that code comes from gambas1, was ported to gambas2 and the to
gambas3.
As the programme is rarely used, the errors may not have been noticed
for a year or two. They are always down to changes in Gambas 3 itself;
I always use the very latest versions. Thanks for the tip – by omitting
the `ByRef`, it’s working again.
What’s baffling, of course, is that it works sometimes and not others,
and that no errors were reported during compilation, not even during
the two passes.

-- 
Amicalement
Charlie