define questions

[cyrille de brébisson]

Hello,

You are correct, DEFINEs (internally) ARE programs, very simplified ones, but programs nevertheless. They are programs because that is what makes them the easiest to implement.

Why do we have defines while there is a perfectly good programming environment?

Because it is much easier for a non-programmer/beginner to use the define environment than the programming one!

One of the problem that we have to solve with Prime is that it is used by a wide variety of persons, with a wide variety of knowledge levels and center of interest.

The programming system, for example, allows you to migrate easily from novice to advanced users, slowly learning better and better programming technics. At the begining using home global variables for everything and then slowly moving up to much cleaner programs for example...

But this comes at a cost. For example some things are there twice, in various forms to make it easier for various persons... Cleanness of code is not enforced...

Cyrille