lb5: user functon that returns string of drawing commands?

[tsh73]

I have a program (circular slide ruler) I just tried to rin in LB5 352 -32 Win10
And it does not work.
And I know why, but I wonder if there should be / will be added a way around it.

You see, lb4 gets drawing commands from a string
so I could create string function that returns drawing commands
This program uses RotatedFont
but I could do anything, say
function circ$(x,y,r)
   circ$="place ";x;" ";y;"; circle ";r
end function

Then called it prints valid string
place 100 200; circle 30


I could store it in a string and then send to a graphicbox, and it works
c$=circ$(100,200,30)
#gr c$


But if I try to put that function right into print to graphicbox statement,
#gr circ$(100,200,30)
it does not work, saying
unrecognized command for #gr: CIRC$()

I understand that now #gr has functiions of it's own, among them
#gr circle(r)
but my function returns string so it could be easily distinguished from build-in ones.

Obviously it worked in old LB.
Is there a way it could work in LB5?

'
'nomainwin
open "test" for graphics as #gr
#gr "trapclose [quit]"
#gr "down"
'#gr "fill white; flush"
#gr "home; posxy cx cy"

#gr "home; circle 50"

print circ$(100,200,30)
'prints
'place 100 200; circle 30

c$=circ$(100,200,30)
#gr c$
'draws circle

''!! try to uncomment that
'#gr circ$(100,200,30)
'does not work, says
'unrecognized command for #gr: CIRC$()

#gr "flush"
wait

[quit]
timer 0
close #gr
end

function circ$(x,y,r)
   circ$="place ";x;" ";y;"; circle ";r
end function

[Stefan Pendl]

If you prepend an empty string the custom function is valid.
#gr ""; circ$(100,200,30)
This could be a work around until custom functions returning strings are supported.

[Carl Gundel]

Mar 27, 2021 16:07:35 GMT -5 Stefan Pendl said:

If you prepend an empty string the custom function is valid.
#gr ""; circ$(100,200,30)
This could be a work around until custom functions returning strings are supported.

Or you might do it this way.  

open "draw a circle" for graphics as #draw

print #draw, circ$(50, 50, 30)

wait



function circ$(x, y, r)

   circ$ = "place "; x; " "; y; "; circle "; r

end function

In Liberty BASIC v4.5.1 you can do it this way:


#draw, circ$(x, y, r)
But this doesn't work in LB5, so I think this should be considered a bug in LB5.

Thanks for this very useful feedback.

-Carl