Hidden Content in VEE

Like many programs, VEE contains various features that are for one reason or another undocumented or, if documented somewhere, are mostly unknown among users. Note that all of these names should be considered reserved in that if you use them for your own names you may well get unexpected results.

• Functions
• Constants
• Variables
• Objects
• Reserved Words
• Easter Eggs
• Features

Functions

Various aliases exist for many functions and at least some new functions exist. keep these in mind when you are writing your own functions, as you may get unexpected results due to name space conflicts.

• acsh(x) alias for the built-in acosh(x)
• acs(x) alias for the built-in acos(x)
• acth(x) alias for the built-in acoth(x)
• act(x) alias for the built-in acot(x)
• asawf(x) alias for the built-in ifft(x)
• asnh(x) alias for the built-in asinh(x)
• asfs(x) alias for the built-in fft(x)
• asLong(x) since VEE is 32-bit is equivalent to asInt32(x)
• asn(x) alias for the built-in asin(x)
• asReal(x) is equivalent to asReal64(x)
• asShort(x)  appears equivalent to asInt16(x)
• asSpectrum(x) takes spectrum or waveform argument
• asWaveform(x) takes spectrum or waveform argument
• atn(x) alias for the built-in atan(x)
• atn2(y,x) alias for the built-in atan2(y,x)
• atnh(x) alias for the built-in atanh(x)
• atn(x) alias for the built-in atan(x)
• binom(a,b) alias for the built-in binomial(a,b)
• cat(x,y) alias for the built-in concat(x,y)
• catenate(x,y) alias for the built-in concat(x,y)
• combination(n,r) alias for the built-in comb(n,r)
• concatenate(x,y) alias for the built-in concat(x,y)
• convolve(a,b) alias for the built-in convol(a,b)
• cosine(x) alias for the built-in cos(x)
• cotangent(x) alias for the built-in cot(x)
• ctnh(x) alias for the built-in coth(x)
• cuberoot(x) alias for the built-in cubert(x)
• cuber(x) alias for the built-in cubert(x)
• derivativeAt(x,order,pt) alias for the built-in derivAt(x,order,pt)
• derivative(x,order) alias for the built-in deriv(x,order)
• determ(x) alias for the built-in det(x)
• dmy2date(d,m,y) alias for the built-in dmyToDate(d,m,y)
• fact(n) alias for the built-in factorial(n)
• false(x) appears related to activeX functions
• fpart(x) alias for the built-in fracPart(x)
• fract(x) alias for the built-in fracPart(x)
• frac(x) alias for the built-in fracPart(x)
• fromdb(x,y,z) appears to be equivalent to y*10^(x/z)
• hms2hour(h,m,s) alias for the built-in hmsToHour(h,m,s)
• hms2sec(h,m,s) alias for the built-in hmsToSec(h,m,s)
• initialize(x,value) alias for the built-in init(x,value)
• inv(x) alias for the built-in inverse(x)
• lgt(x) alias for the built-in log10(x)
• linMagDist(x,from,thru,step) alias for the built-in magDist(x,from,thru,step)
• linRamp(numElem,start,stop) alias for the built-in ramp(numElem,start,stop)
• ln(x) alias for the built-in log(x)
• matDiv(numer,denom) alias for the built-in matDivide(numer,denom)
• matMul(A,B) alias for the built-in matMultiply(A,B)
• matMult(A,B) alias for the built-in matMultiply(A,B)
• ord(x) alias for the built-in ordinal(x)
• permutation(x) alias for the built-in perm(x)
• prod(x) alias for the built-in product(x)
• rectwin(x) alias for the built-in rect(x)
• sgn(x) alias for the built-in signOf(x)
• sgr(x) alias for the built-in sqrt(x)
• sine(x) alias for the built-in sin(x)
• sqroot(x) alias for the built-in sqrt(x)
• tangent(x) alias for the built-in tan(x)
• todb(x,y,z)  appears to be equivalent to z*log10(x/y)
• true(x) appears related to activeX functions
• variance(x) alias for the built-in vari(x)
• xcorr(a,b) alias for the built-in xCorrelate(a,b)

Constants

• pi - this variable is a true global and gives the value of pi to 64-bit accuracy
• true - int32 "1"
• false - int32 "0"
• maxint16 - maximum possible 16-bit signed integer (2^15-1 or 32767)
• maxint32 - maximum possible 32-bit signed integer (2^31-1 or 2147483647)
• maxint64 - maximum possible 64-bit signed integer (2^63-1 or 9223372036854775807) - VEE8 and beyond - earlier VEE had no int64
• now - in a Date/Time constant the variable "now" exists and is set to the current system time. Same as now()

Variables

• null -"null" acts as "/dev/null" in a READ transaction.  Use "null" as the return variable to discard data, such as reading in three values to get to a fourth value. You do not need to add an output terminal for this variable.

Objects

These names are used by VEE internal objects. Do not use them for any variables or functions.

• io - appears to be builtin object that contains IO config
• me - appears to be builtin object related to the workspace
• main - appears to be builtin object related to the workspace
• builtin - appears to be builtin object related to the function library
• formula - seems to be a problem sometimes but not always. Probably best to not use this.

Reserved Words

These names are reserved for specific usage by VEE. Do not use them for variables, terminals or function names as noted below.

• close - not allowed as field names in transactions ( as in A.close if A is a record with field close )
• sec - not allowed in output terminal on IO "From" objects
• SET - keyword used in formulas with ActiveX objects
• ByRef - keyword used in formulas with ActiveX objects
• Object and terminal names have their own restricted list that mostly includes internal functions and constants
  • AND ASAWF ASBOOLEAN ASCOMPLEX ASCOORD
    ASDOUBLE ASFS ASINT ASINT16 ASINT32
    ASINT64 ASINTEGER ASLONG ASLONGINT ASPCOMPLEX
    ASREAL ASREAL32 ASREAL64 ASSHORT ASSPECTRUM
    ASSTR ASSTRING ASTEXT ASUINT8 ASWAVEFORM
  • Builtin ByRef
  • COORD
  • DIV
  • Main MAXINT MAXINT16 MaxInt16 MAXINT32 MaxInt32 MAXINT64 MaxInt64 MaxLong MAXLONG MaxShort MAXSHORT Me MinInt MININT MININT16 MinInt16 MinInt32 MININT32 MinInt64 MININT64 MOD
  • NOT
  • OR
  • PI
  • SET
  • XOR XYZZY
• IO Objects are a special case, largely due to the key words in transactions. There's a long list of reserved words that can't be used in IO transactions, including:
  • ABORT ACK ALL ARRAY BEL
  • BINARY BINBLOCK BOOL BOOLEAN BREAK BS BYTE
  • CAN CASE CHAR CLEAR CLOSE CLOSEREAD CLOSEWRITE CMD CMND CONTAINER COORD COUNT CPX CR CTL CTS
  • DATA DATAREADY DATE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 DCL DEG DELETE DELTIME DLE DMY DSR DTR
  • ECL EM ENQ EOI EOL EOT EQUAL ERR ESC ETB ETX EXCLUDE EXECUTE EXT
  • FF FIX FS FW
  • GET GRAD GS GTL
  • H12 H24 HEX HM HMS HT
  • IOSTATUS
  • INCLUDE INCR INT INT16 INT32 INT64 INTERVAL IOCONTROL IOSTATUS ITEM
  • LF LISTEN LJ LLO LOCAL LOCALLOCKOUT LOCK
  • MASK MAXFW MEM MLA MSG MTA
  • PASS_CONTROL PCTL PCX PPC PPU PREFIX PULSE
  • QSTR
  • RAD READ REAL REAL32 REAL64 REG REMOTE RESET REWIND RJ RS RTS
  • SCI SDC SEC SEND SET SI SIGN SO SOH SPD SPE SPEC SPOLL STATE STD STR STS STX SUB SYN
  • TALK TCT TEXT TIME TOKEN TRIGGER TTL
  • UNL UNLOCK UNT US
  • VT
  • WAIT WDMY WF WRITE
  • any data type name such as REAL32
  • actions words such as WAIT, CLEAR

Easter Eggs

• xyzzy - try putting this more or less anywhere. You'll get one result when editing and another at runtime.
• Search the Help. Bring up help and search for "ugly", "medusa", "queen vee" and "turn to stone" and you'll get various results depending upon the version of VEE.
• See VEE team list: Bring up the About banner and right-click three times slowly on the banner.

Features

• Internal Debug - allows access to more extensive toolset that may be of use