The X# compiler can run in different dialects. The table below shows the differences between these dialects.
You can use the /dialect compiler option to select the dialect that you want to use.
The Core dialect is default. All dialects apart from the Core dialect require a reference to the XSharp runtime DLLs
Feature |
Xbase++ 14 |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 Letter abbreviations of keywords (FUNC, WHIL etc). |
- |
Yes 11 |
- |
Yes 11 |
Follow the conventions of Xbase++ |
Yes 11 |
&& as single line comment character (alternative syntax for //) |
- |
Yes |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
* at beginning of line as comment character |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
ALIAS (->) operator |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
AND, NOT, OR, XOR as alternatives for .AND., .NOT. etc |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Yes |
ARRAY type, Including Array literals & NULL_ARRAY, including missing elements |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
BREAK statement |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
BEGIN SEQUENCE .. RECOVER .. END SEQUENCE |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
CLIPPER calling convention (requires USUAL support) |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
CODEBLOCK type |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
DATE type, including NULL_DATE |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
DATE and DateTime literals |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
DEFINE statement with optional type clause |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
FIELD statement, and recognition of Field names in stead of locals or instance variables |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
FLOAT type, including Float literals & the /vo14 compiler option |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
FOR .. ENDFOR as alternative for FOR .. NEXT |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
FOR EACH as alternative for FOREACH |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Yes |
GLOBAL statement |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
IIF() expression and the /vo10 compiler option |
Yes 7 |
Yes 7 |
Yes 7 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Late binding |
- |
Yes (with /lb+) |
Yes (with /lb+) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
LPARAMETERS statement |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Yes |
MACRO compiler |
- 13 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
MEMVAR, PUBLIC, PRIVATE, PARAMETERS statement , including undeclared variables 14 |
- |
Yes |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
PSZ Type, including NULL_PSZ and (pseudo) PSZ conversion functions (String2Psz(), Cast2Psz() |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
PSZ Indexer |
n/a |
1 based |
0 based |
1 based |
1 based |
1 based |
NULL_STRING |
Yes 9 |
Yes 9 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
SYMBOL type, including Symbol literals & NULL_SYMBOL |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Statements before the first entity in a source file |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Yes |
USUAL type, including NIL literal (1,2) |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes 15 |
TEXT Command |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Yes |
Special features |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|||
VOSTRUCT and AS/IS syntax (10) |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
- |
- |
- |
UNION and AS/IS syntax (10) |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
- |
- |
- |
Untyped Literal Arrays |
- |
Yes 8 |
Yes 8 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Missing types allowed |
- |
Yes 3 |
Yes 3 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Missing arguments in function/method calls MyFunc(1,,2) |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Pseudo functions |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
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PCount(), _GetMParam(), _GetFParam(), _Args() |
- |
Yes 4 |
Yes 4 |
Yes 4 |
Yes 4 |
Yes 4 |
SLen() |
- |
Yes 5 |
Yes 5 |
Yes 5 |
Yes 5 |
Yes 5 |
_Chr() |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
AltD() |
- |
Yes 6 |
Yes 6 |
Yes 6 |
Yes 6 |
Yes 6 |
PCall, PCallNative |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
CCall, CCallNative |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Other information |
||||||
Generated Function class name |
Functions |
<AssemblyName>.Functions (DLLs) |
1.Requires VulcanRT.DLL or XSharp.VO.DLL
2.Requires VulcanRTFuncs.DLL or XSharp.VO.DLL
3.Missing types get translated to USUAL. With the new /vo15 compiler option you can tell the compiler that you do not want to allow missing types
4.Only supported inside functions and methods with Clipper Calling convention
5.The Vulcan runtime does not have a SLen() function. The compiler translates this to accessing the Length property of the string
6.This gets translated to
IF System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Attached
System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break()
ENDIF
7.In the core dialect each of the expressions is cast to OBJECT. In the other dialects the expression is cast to USUAL.
8.Untyped literal arrays in the VO/Vulcan dialect are translated to the VO Array type:
{"aa", "bb", "cc"}
Typed literal arrays are prefixed with <Type> like this:
<STRING>{"aa", "bb", "cc"}
This becomes a literal string array
9.With the /vo2 compiler option NULL_STRING is compiled to an empty string. Otherwise to a NULL.
10.The VOSTRUCT and UNION can be replaced with a standard .NET structure. For Union you need to use the [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)] attribute on the structure and the [FieldOffSet()] attribute on each field to explicitly define the location of the fields.
11.Only for VO compatible keywords, not for keywords introduced in Vulcan or XSharp.
12.The true and false expressions for an IIF() are optional in Harbour and Xbase++
13.The macro compiler is not supported. However when you use the RDD system in the Core dialect then the index expression will still use the macro compiler and a reference to the XSharp.RT.DLL is needed for the support of the macro compiler.
14.This requires the XSharp runtime.
15.In FoxPro NIL is not allowed and redefined to FALSE.