[Gambas-user] Structure support in Gambas 3

[Benoît Minisini]

> > To define a structure, you must declare it inside a class or a module
> > that
> > 
> > way:
> > 	Public Struct<StructName>
> > 	<Var1>  As<Type1>
> > 	<Var2>  As<Type2>
> > 	End Struct
> 
> This means you cannot define the struct itself at runtime like an
> object, right? You must know the struct's composition of variables in
> advance? So the program could not react freely to a change in the
> database? (Don't know how to express it more clearly...)

Of course, as for the other classes. If you don't know the structure of your 
data at compile time, you must use something else like a collection.

Maybe there will be a trick (not possible at the moment), like creating a 
gambas project at runtime, compile it, and loads it as a component. But it 
would be weird to do that.

> 
> But it's great, I find this practical as well when you include external
> functions from the system.
> 
> > ability to release incremental versions of Gambas (3.1, 3.2...) that
> > won't be just bug fixes like in the 2.x versions.
> 
> I don't quite see what you mean by that. Do you intend to create an
> update mechanism that loads new libraries?
> 

No. I just want to be able to release new features faster in Gambas 3. But 
that will mean that:

- If X > Y, 3.X must be able to run programs in 3.Y, maybe with a 
recompilation.
- But not the contrary. 3.Y may not be able to run 3.X programs. Users will 
have to upgrade.
- You won't be able to install 3.X and 3.Y on the same machine.

Package dependencies must be more precise ("depends on 3.1 gambas runtime" 
instead of "depends on any 3.x gambas runtime").

Only the 4.0 will be able to break the backward compatibility, by removing 
instructions, features, changing the meaning of them...

Regards,

-- 
Benoît Minisini