twinBASIC Update: August 19, 2024

Highlights include...a periodic reminder that the twinBASIC project typically keeps an insane release frequency.

Mike Wolfe

Aug 19, 2024 • 3 min read

On April 23, 2021, I helped Wayne Phillips introduce the world to twinBASIC at the Access DevCon Vienna conference. I boldly predicted that twinBASIC (along with the Monaco editor) would replace VBA and its outdated development environment by 2025. With that goal in mind, this weekly update is my attempt to keep the project fresh in the minds of the VBA development community.

Every ~~Sunday~~ ~~Monday~~ week, I will be providing updates on the status of the project, linking to new articles discussing twinBASIC, and generally trying to increase engagement with the project. If you come across items that should be included here, please leave a comment below.

Here are some links to get involved with the project:

Highlights

A Quiet Week

The biggest highlight from this week is...that there are no highlights.

Indeed, the occasional quiet week serves as a periodic reminder that this project typically maintains an insanely high release frequency.

This recent note from Wayne Phillips in the Discord server might shed a bit of light on the reason things have been uncharacteristically quiet lately:

Apologies for the pause in releases. BETA 587 is now out. Kids off school, plus I had a bad cold, probably covid, which didn't help. Normal(ish) release schedule to resume.

Here's to hoping Wayne feels better soon and gets his nose back to the old twinBASIC grindstone.

Wayne in his basement hard at work on the next set of twinBASIC features.

Discord Chat Summary

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twinBASIC Discord Recap: August 14-19, 2024

This week's discussions in the twinBASIC Discord server focused primarily on coding practices, variable naming conventions, and the importance of readable code. While there were no major announcements about twinBASIC itself, the community engaged in valuable conversations about best practices in programming.

Key points from the discussions:

Clean, easy-to-read code was emphasized as a crucial but often overlooked aspect of programming, even in large tech companies.

Variable naming conventions were debated, with a focus on clarity and meaningfulness:

Dim IndexIntoXXXXComboBox As Integer ' Descriptive naming
Dim getthat As Integer = 0 ' Less descriptive, requires comment

The use of Hungarian notation and type characters in variable names was discussed, with mixed opinions on their relevance in modern programming environments.
Underscores in variable names were debated, with some developers favoring them for clarity, while others pointed out potential issues in VBx environments:
```
Dim refSketch_bearingHousing As String ' Example of underscore usage
```
The VBA specification's restriction on underscores in event names was highlighted, affecting interface implementations in classes.
Modern IDEs with intellisense were noted as reducing the need for abbreviated variable names, allowing for more descriptive identifiers without sacrificing typing efficiency.
The community discussed the balance between descriptive naming and avoiding overly long or complex identifiers.

In conclusion, this week's conversations revolved around the importance of writing clear, maintainable code in twinBASIC and other programming languages. While no significant twinBASIC updates were mentioned, the discussions provided valuable insights into coding practices that can benefit developers working with the language. The community's engagement on these topics demonstrates a shared commitment to improving code quality and readability in twinBASIC projects.

Around the Web

Nothing noteworthy to report.

Changelog

Here are the updates from the past week. You can also find this information by visiting the GitHub twinBASIC Releases page.

No new releases this week.