Alain Pastor wrote:

< snip everything in this thread >

I've been sitting back, following the thread and bouncing back and forth like one of
these rubber balls connected to a paddle with an elastic/rubber tether.  Confused as
I am on the topic, so confused will our Newbies be; therefore, I am requesting an
unbiased "Summary" of "Variable Types" - "Old vs New" to be included in "The Book"'s
Release 1.0 Version.  If I don't receive one within a few days, I will write it
myself, largely based on this Thread, in which case, rather than all of the
rhetoric, I would appreciate a list of the merits (pros and cons) of each approach
- so that I don't forget the points you guys have discussed.

At one point I was about to throw up my hands in disgust about this topic, but, as
it continued - ON and ON - I began to see merit in the discussion.  As I mentioned
in "The Book", the newest Basic Standard I could find is almost 15 years old.  Is
it, perhaps, not time for a new one.  As a beginning programmer, the most trying
aspect of understanding code was not the logic or the structures, but the "weird"
variables.  My first encounter with "Foo" really through me for a real loop.  Though
we may need to continue to tolerate one or the other approach, I think it is
important that we adopt a "preferred" approach.  Let's not confuse the Newbies any
more than we have to.  Sure there are thousands of lines of code that will still
continue to baffle all of us, but there is no need for the code we write from this
day forth to be so damn different - programmer by programmer - that we have to spend
50% or more of our time just understanding what is going on.  This, perhaps, more
than anything else, could bring FutureBASIC to the forefront. All IMHO!

Sound fair?

TIA,

Joe Wilkins
General Editor of "FB^3 - The Book"
A Developers Guide to FutureBASIC^3