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Hi all,

This might come across as a bit of a rant, but I just want to check something

I have recently got back into DB (using DBP) after purchasing it about 2yrs ago. I have a specific goal to create a program, that will also give me the training in using the program, so I decided that I wanted to create a 3D pool game, so collisions and physics were going to be my stumbling blocks. So I purchases the relevant addons that I thought I would need, and use the tutorials that come with these addons to learn how to use them. But one thing I have noticed is that some of the code in them are wrong, and it is a real pain in not being able to copy out of the help file (I have to write out parts of the code manually) this does not help my learning, apart from becoming an excellent debugger wih all the weired messages about not defining a numeric equation

For Example
DarkPhysics - The Getting Started tutorial - should not really have any problems with this one.

From the book -

Can you see anything wrong - try it?

I finally got it to work with the following code (see if you can spot the change!



Please dont get me wrong DBP is an excellent program, but I feel the lack of proofreading and testing code before sending it out does seem a bit bad, especially for someone new to programming and want to learn using the tutorials that are included with a paid product. Can we have updated tutorials posted on the website, so we can update our local copies

So rant finished and I am sorry that I have had to post in the newcomers section, but I am a n00b

When you say "From the book", is this a physical book, or the help files?

DarkPHYSICS, and other plugins as well as the core product, are updated regularly. Some of the older examples become obsolete as the code is improved. It's often a good idea to look at any upgrade threads to understand the changes.

bug errors, funny but I thought that how we all learn to code, I expect there not one person on here,who can say that what they started was coded first time, bang on with no errors.

plus coping and pasting is cheating.

you never had that choice in the 80's when coding was born, it was a listing in a magazine in very small print that put 1500 to 2000 lines of code on two pages, would smudged if you just put your finger on it, plus it was up to you to debug it as : and ; look the same in small print or the whole line was missing.

If there was anything wrong with the code you had to wait till the next month to find out.

so that my rant.

I am older enough to have used the original basic program on my BBC!! Any yes typing from magazines was fun - if that is what you can call it? But they were the good old days, where I did not have to think about mortgages or recessions.

To answer BatVink - this was from the information.chm file in the DBP Online\Projects\Dark Physics\Documentation directory.

HowDo - I only copy and pasted once I had typed all the code and it didn't work, I had checked all my syntax but could not see a problem. Next choice - copy and paste - but this does not seem to keep the formating or pastes text as something different (numbers become text strings rather than being read as integers)

I think this was what happened when I first starting using DB, and I probably got frustrated, so I forgot about it, but now I am coming back I want to get through these pitfalls, and I wanted to give some feedback so that the product is improved and other people new to DB would not get these problems.

I wasn't aware that the BBC Micro had an emulator to support the original BASIC. I seem to remember using BBC BASIC on my machine