Dear List,
I have experienced the following today: In a large module, I added some code
and suddenly no further keys were accepted. So I closed MapBasic and
prompted the question if I want to save the changes with yes. Next I tried
to open the file again and it appears empty. The file size although is still
64K. Opening the same file with a text editor revieled that all text was
overwritten with one of these rectangles. That probably means the file is
gone, MapBasic kind of crashed when attempting to save.
Then I remembered that sometime ago on the list somebody mentioned a certain
limit of the file size the MapBasic editor can deal with, and so I think it
was that limit which caused my file to become corrupted. Well, first I want
to ask the list if somebody knows, if I can recover that file somehow. I
have an older version, but I have made some important changes that I would
like to recover.
Then, of course, I want to complain. If my suspicion about the reason for
the crash is correct, then I think this kind of ungraceful dealing with such
a size limit is totally inappropriate. There should be a warning message at
least, and it should be possible to safely save your work. Additionally it
is very poor that this size limit is not documented very obviously (at least
I am not aware of). To have a MapBasic module with about 2800 lines of code
should not be that unusual so that this might have quite often. Now I know
that I have to split my code even more. My App already consists of six
modules and becomes quite difficult to manage now.
Which brings me to the second point. Although MapBasic is not the most
modern compiler of the world, it is still quite required and, by the way,
the syntax of MB is really easy to learn as opposed to ESRI's Avenue. What I
do not understand, however, is why MapBasic has not get any overhaul since
such a long time. The development environment is really primitve and large
projects are difficult to manage. There are no Visual Tools not to speak of
data aware controls, which would be a very good enhancement to construct
dialogs for data entry. The size limit of the compiler is inappropriate also
and at least MapBasic should keep a backup file in the background (maybe it
does ???) in case you crash like I did. Also in large modules the search
function of the compiler cannot find items towards the end of the file.
OK, there is MapX, but not all problems are best served with integrated
mapping, especially if the client wants to use the standard MapInfo
interface at the same time.
So, I would like to encourage MapInfo to enhance there nice MapBasic
language to a tool, what MapInfo Professional really deserves. If the reason
for the crash could not be the size limit I would like to sincerely
apologize for my critics, but at the moment I cannot think of any other
reason. The points about necessary enhancements should be valid anyway.
What does the list think about all this ?
Regards
Thomas G�lden
Diplom-Geologe
Email (privat): [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Email (dienstl.): [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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