[Coco] What are the rules for naming basic09 variables ?

[Wayne Campbell]

I can see you are talking about OS-9 filenames and directory names. We were
discussing Basic09 variable names. But you are correct about how the
directories end up with alot if garbage entries with file deletions.

On Sat, Jul 27, 2019, 4:35 PM Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> wrote:

> On Saturday 27 July 2019 05:03:15 Wayne Campbell wrote:
>
> > I have done experiments before. It's 29 for variable names. 30 drops
> > the last character. I don't know if variable names have a terminating
> > 0 unless they are shorter than 29 characters.
> >
> Thats one of the reasons I wrote gsort a couple decades back, it reads
> dir names until the high bit is set. I don't recall now but someone had
> written another disk utility that left old name garbage beyond whatever
> was the official name of the file.  So gsort zero's out between the
> marked end of the name to the 29th byte, leaving the real name and
> address of the FDS intact.  Nice clean directory's that way. And it
> sorts deleted files, with a null first char, to the bottom of the list
> and clears them, all 32 bytes, before writing it back to the file.
>
> Sheesh, its been yonks since then, and my memory is needing more and more
> refreshing. I hate to admit that after 84 years, short term memory is
> starting to go away...
>
> > On Sat, Jul 27, 2019, 2:00 AM Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net>
> wrote:
> > > On Friday 26 July 2019 16:21:58 Wayne Campbell wrote:
> > > > Up to 29 characters, 0-9, a-z, A-Z, _
> > >
> > > I think its 28 active, to make room for the terminating zero of the
> > > string.
> > >
> > > > $ only if a string variable, only as last character of the
> > > > variable name. Not sure, but I think first character has to be a
> > > > letter?
> > > >
> > > > Wayne
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 1:00 PM <coco at jechar.ca> wrote:
> > > > >   I have seen examples of variable names 10 or 11 characters
> > > > > long and of the $ being used in a
> > > > >   variable name.
> > > > >
> > > > >   So I know that alpha numeric and $ are legal components and at
> > > > > least 10 characters long but I cannot
> > > > >   find the explicit rules so for example is underscore a legal
> > > > > variable name component, what is the
> > > > >   maximum number of characters  in a variable and are they all
> > > > > used or for example would
> > > > >   VARIABLE1 be the same as VARIABLE2 because first eight
> > > > > characters are all the same ?
> > > > >
> > > > >   Only answer what you know for sure. I could always try writing
> > > > > a bunch of test programs to
> > > > >   come up with the rules experimentally but perhaps someone
> > > > > knows the exact restrictions on basic09
> > > > >   variable naming ?
> > > > >
> > > > >   Charles
> > > > >
> > > > > --
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> > > > > Coco at maltedmedia.com
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> > >
> > > Cheers, Gene Heskett
> > > --
> > > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> > >  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> > > -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> > > If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law
> > > respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis
> > > Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
> > >
> > > --
> > > Coco mailing list
> > > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> --
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
>  - Louis D. Brandeis
> Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>