Re: adob.stream - altering a byte() result

"R.Wieser" <[email protected]> Tue, 3 Jun 2025 09:32:55 +0200
Newsgroups alt.comp.lang.vbscript,alt.windows7.general
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <[email protected]>
JJ,

> mid(), left(), right(), including their "b" and "w" versions, are 
> functions
> which returns a string constant,

Which, returning a "string" instead of a "byte()" I mean, is a problem when 
(trying to) manipulate a Byte() string. :-|

> so they can't be used as the left-side in an assignment. No programming
> language allows a constant to be used as the left-side in an assignment.

True, you can't change a constant.

Now all you need to do it to explain how/why something like (string,3,1) is 
a constant, and not just a reference to an element inside the provided 
string.

Also, the question was about "altering*. The example trying to do an 
in-place change is just that, an example (of what I tried).   I would not 
mind* to be shown a set of functions specially for byte() strings, so they 
can be manipulated just like a standard strings can be.

* not mind /too much/ I mean.  I still regard it rather daft that byte() 
strings can not be manipulated the same way standard strings can.  But thats 
MS to you.

By the way: QBASIC (provided with DOS 5.x) has no problem with using mid() 
as the left side of an assignment.  IOW, be carefull with claims like "no 
programming language".

> In VB/VBA/VBS, string value is not mutable like array contents. i.e.
> changed in-place. It can only be changed in-place via lower level
> means such as Windows API.

:-) You might remember I'm a hobby programmer. After I ran into the above 
shennigans of VBScript not actually supporting a byte() string, that's what 
I've done - implementing reading and writing the individual bytes as the 
first step.

My question was/is aimed to find out if I didn't overlook something VBScript 
already offered. I do not really want to duplicate whats already there.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser