World: r3wp

for example, I did an interface for the meetup.com site in an hour, 
but their API docs are VERY well done and its really simple.

is this a pubic site?

(but you need a paying account for it to be any usefull, cause its 
bound to the account number)

not public

do you have a client that works inside a browser?

I'll stick with GET for now.. thanks for your help
(no)

you can try something devious, using rebol.  :-)

(send you a pm)

(send you a pm)

hmm

-you open a tcp listen port
-edit the hosts file so your remote server points to 127.0.0.1

-and then just print out the data which the client would have sent 
to the server.


this works for just about every networked application I have tried 
and is a very powerfull way to learn how to build custom clients 
in rebol

could use wireshark i suppose

yep good point

Cyphre made this new FORM-DECIMAL function. I've been allowed to 
share it, so it can be tested:

form-decimal: func [
	num cifre
	/local m n o p result
][
	p: ""
	result: either find num: form num #"e" [
		parse num [
			any [copy m to "." skip] copy n to "E" skip o: (
				all [
					not m
					m: n
					n: ""
				]
				if m/1 = #"-" [
					m: copy next m
					p: "-"
				]
				z: (length? m) + to-integer o
				result: to-string reduce either negative? z [
					["0." (head insert/dup copy "" "0" abs z) m n]
				][
					o: join m n
					["" o (head insert/dup copy "" "0" (z - length? o))]
				]
			)
		]
		result
	][
		num
	]
	result: parse result "."
	o: result/1
	o: skip tail result/1 -3
	while [not head? o][insert o #"." o: skip o -3]
	all [
		not result/2
		insert tail result ""
	]
	result/2: copy/part result/2 cifre
	insert/dup tail result/2 "0" cifre - length? result/2
	all [cifre > 0 insert next result ","]
	all [result/1/1 = #"0" p: ""]
	join p result
]

Have you seen Gabriele's version?

The fact it uses the name "cifre" suggest it is related to Gab's 
vesion!

What's that ? (seems messy at first glance)
With which params is that supposed to work ?

decimal! and integer!

where the latter specifies the number of decimal places

The task is to convert from scientific notation to numbers only

I just have the feeling that it should be done with only few lines

*could be

Graham, this is a replacement for Gabriele's version. This one is 
more complete.

The primary issue is overcoming REBOL's varying usage of scientific 
notation. That's one reason it's so big (but still smaller than Gabriele's).

I've done my own, and its similar, in size and functionality... not 
much to do... the scientific notation is a pain to manage.

I suggest we fix core so that it triggers scientific notation at 
7 decimal places as it does in R3 instead of at 2 decimal places 
as it does no.

w.

well, using a "mask" approach, allows more capabilities then just 
providing the number of decimals.

Like I've done here for R3: http://www.rebol.net/cgi-bin/r3blog.r?view=0302#comments
(see fnum)


It's true, it doesn't handle scientific notation as entry currently, 
but hey !, it should not take more than 2 or 3 more lines.

I'd rather we didn't have the problem in the first place!

Yes, agree. I'm helping building a rather large app, where this is 
important and when things like this aren't trivial to solve... But 
what ever happens, I think we need a function like this in R3 and 
R2-Forward.

It should be part of a general FORMAT func IMO.

The disadvantage to that is that it makes the FORMAT function more 
complex, and thus slow.

It's just chocies. Format, as it stands, isn't something I'll use. 
And if someone shows me a case where the overhead has a noticable 
and visible impact on their code, I will refactor a custom version 
for them. :-) 


I'm open to discussion, scenarios, and the backs of envelopes. Where 
is FORMAT likely to be used, how often will it be called, and how 
slow is too slow?

Numeric formatting should be fast enough to get called in a tight 
loop for grid output. Thousands of times, really quickly.

well, if you format you change the type

in rebgui at least

Sounds like RebGUI needs grid formatting.

Brian, great example. It also highlights that we may want it to accept 
sets of values as well as single values.

Single value formatting is exactly the kind of thing that could use 
the /into option, for buffer reuse.

I have a large, non-optimzed FORMAT function, but couldn't remember 
profiling it. I just did a few quick tests.

>> time-it/count [format d "yyyy-mmm-dd"] 1000
== 0:00:00.094
>> time-it/count [format d 'rel-time] 1000
== 0:00:00.078
>> time-it/count [format 1000.01 'general] 1000
== 0:00:00.047
>> time-it/count [format 1000.01 'reb-general] 1000
== 0:00:00.031
>> time-it/count [format "Gregg" [10 right]] 1000
== 0:00:00.031
>> time-it/count [format "Gregg" [10 right #"."]] 1000
== 0:00:00.016
>> time-it/count [format true 'on-off] 1000
== 0:00

Are those results too slow?

I have no idea. It's easier to judge by DP than DT (the equivalent 
of time-it).

How so? I haven't used DP.

It will tell you evaluations and series created, which is a bit more 
cross-platform reliable than time. Don't know how fast your CPU is.

to compare our CPUs we can use SPEED?
==2100 on my Celeron

(with R3)

SPEED? sould be ehnanced to output system informations (like the 
CPU, frequency and OS)

seems there is a bug in it:

form-decimal -100 1
== "-.100,0"

Anyone with a fix?

Some time ago, I did form-decimal function too. But I am really a 
coding lamer, so dunno, if it cover at least half the cases other 
versions do. Here it is:

form-decimal: func [num /local tmp main rest sign base][

     either found? find tmp: to-string num "E" [

              parse tmp [
                 [copy main to "." 
                  skip
                  copy rest to "E"
                  |
                  copy rest to "E"
                  (main: copy "")  
                  ]
             
                 skip
                 mark: (sign: copy/part mark 1)
                 skip
                 copy base to end
               ]


        either sign = "-" [

                tmp: copy "0."

                loop ((to-integer base) - 1) [insert tail tmp "0"]
                insert tail tmp rest
        ][
                tmp: copy ""

                insert tail tmp join main rest

                loop ((to-integer base) - (length? rest)) [insert tail tmp "0"]  
                    
                           
        ] 
     
      tmp                 

     ][num] 

]

Graham, wouldn't it be more appropriate to simply never output scientific 
numbering and then create a scientific formatting function?

Here's Gabriele's original version

form-decimal: func [   num     [number!]
        cifre   [integer!]

        /local sign str poscifre int frac pow
    ][   sign: either negative? num [#"-"] [""]
        str: make string! 16
        either zero? num
        [   insert str #"0"
            if cifre > 0
            [   insert/dup
                    insert
                        tail str
                        #","
                    #"0"
                    cifre
        ]   ]
        [   num: abs num
            num: form
                add
                    multiply
                        power 10 cifre
                        to-decimal num
                    0,5

                        ; mainly WINE bug workaround - might also work for larger numbers 
                        on Windows
                        if find num "E"

                        [       parse num [copy int to "." skip copy frac 15 to "E" skip 
                        copy pow to end]
                                pow: to integer! pow
                                either pow >= 0
                                [       insert/dup
                                                insert/part

                                                        insert clear num int
                                                        frac

                                                        skip frac pow
                                                #"0"

                                                pow - length? frac
                                ]
                                [       num: "0"]
                        ]
            clear any [find num "." ""]
            poscifre: skip  tail num  negate cifre
            insert/part insert str sign num
                num: skip num
                    1 + remainder
                        subtract
                            index? poscifre
                            2
                        3
            while [(index? poscifre) > (index? num)]
            [   insert/part
                    insert
                        tail str
                        #"'"
                    num
                    num: skip num 3
            ]
            if empty? str [insert str #"0"]
            if not tail? poscifre
            [   insert
                    insert/dup
                        insert
                            tail str
                            #","
                        #"0"
                        cifre - length? poscifre
                    poscifre
            ]
        ]
        str
    ]