This is how it is supposed to work:

The PEMDAS rules that state the order in which the operations in an expression should be solved, are:
1. Parentheses - They take precedence over all other operators. The first step is to solve all the operations within the parentheses. Work out all groupings from inside to out. (Whatever is in parentheses is a grouping)
2. Exponents - Work out all the exponential expressions.
3. Multiplication and Division - Next, moving from left to right, multiply and/or divide whichever comes first.
4. Addition and Subtraction - Lastly, moving from left to right, add and/or subtract whichever comes first.

So in the code provided, * and \ (/) are processed left to right in the order they appear in the calculation (same goes for addition/subtraction).

It seems that QB64 isn't doing that, otherwise the answer should be 186 instead of 421

The code below breaks Cobalt's formula down the way it is supposed to be calculated:

Awhile back I ran into issues where my MIDI file collection needed to be converted into an acceptable file format to be able to play it in QB64, as the only valid files are: WAV, OGG or MP3 file types.

So below is a BASH Shell script that converts a MIDI file into BOTH a .wav and a .mp3 file.

You will need to have installed:

Zenity - Used for the BASH GUI
timidity - To convert MIDI to WAV (Software synthesizer)
ffmpeg -  To convert timidity WAV to MP3 files.

Except for Zenity, timidity and ffmpeg I believe exists on all OS's, Since I only run Linux and macOS, I can't guarantee that this will run on Windows, but the principle behind what the script does should apply. I haven't completely tested it yet on my macOS, but I have installed the three requirements above. If I have any issues with it, I will post an update (not an edit). I know not all features of Zenity work on a macOS system. So I may create a command-line version.

Now I can convert all my Christmas MIDI files into WAV and MP3 files.

Merry Christmas.

Couldn't you use a ../ like you can when you have an INCLUDE?

For example:

The code snippet is part of a SUB located in the /include directory, because it is used in 3 programs. the deleteWorkFiles.inc is used in many of my programs in the project directory.

I've never tried this with DECLARE LIBRARY statements before, but wouldn't it still resolve correctly?

I was only joking about you cheating --- I figured you saved more in your stores, because the rats only eat what is stored, and not what comes out of the fields. That's the insects' job! But that you indeed were unlucky that year. I still have fine-tuning to do there. Be aware the original game knocks you down in status at the end if you do not maintain 10 acres per person!

I kind of figured when I added another way to deplete crops/harvests, I added disasters to try and mitigate the extra damages, giving the player twice as many ways to reduce the population, but I always knew that I would have to adjust the starting parameters, as I said or implied in my response to SMcNeill. In my notes on my research of the period, I have the actual population and size of land Hammurabi had at the start of his reign, and may start with that. The final version will have some chances or fate (being at the mercies of their gods!), with ways to help mitigate losses. But that period of time was a very perilous one. So some of that has to play into your future decision-making.

I had planned to, as in one of your posts, break up the population into the actual class-structure that existed back then. The five main classes were: The Ruling Class, Servant Class, Upper Class, Working Class, and Lower Class. Not everyone worked the land. The Servant Class was made up mainly of military members (Generals were in the Ruling Class), master craftsmen and palace/upper class servants, like cooks, etc.) I have three pages of a tree-diagram I created showing the hierarchy within each class. Not all will appear in the game, and I am still trying to figure out the ratio, as historical information about this is pretty vague, but I'll make it so the game is playable.

I do know how many people are needed to work a field, between the overseer to the oxen teams to field hands, it took at least 40 people to work one field (one field = 38.88 ha, or 96 acres, if my math is right that 1 hectare = 2.47 acres).

It will be a strategy game, one based on the real period 1800-1700 BCE, with the real dangers and gains. Besides making it enjoyable to play, I'd like to make it educational as well, so the more you play it, the greater knowledge you will gain from that period of time. A pretty tall order, but I love these kind of coding challenges.

Anything else you can think of, just let me know. I'm always open to suggestions and improvements. I'll probably have a rough program (the skeleton of the game engine) done by end of January next year, with some of these features working. It will use InForm for the GUI, to allow it to run on all platforms.

LOL  , no George I haven't cheated.
I don't like to win easily...

but as you can see from screenshot I have sold 300 acres (I remember at the price of 21 or 23 for acre) and of the starting 2800 bushels I have spent the more to save crops and cruelly the less to save citizens. (population 74 of those  15 migrants and 6 newborns...21 people joining the population in that year that rats take all my bushels!).
....
going out of joke...
as strategy game we start with 2800 bushels  100 citizens that need 20 bushel for each of theme = 2000 bushel for save 100 citizens...you can plant 100 acres using 3 bushel for acre so 300 bushels... so in perspective
100 citizens saved = 2000 bushels
800/3 = 266,666.... acres  that can be planted...--> if fortune kisses you, it is possible that you gain 5 bushel for acre harvesting  1330 bushels... and from here you must take away the food for rats and insects...
at the end you must choose to sacrifice some citizens... also selling at a good price some acres... (I sold at 21 or 23 bushels for acre  just 300 acres) your acres go down quickly and you need almost 700 to let survive 100 citizens (700 x 3 = 2100 bushels).

So at the start point Hammurabi has too many citizens and acres and few bushels.
If rats and insects can get all his bushels... from a strategy game IMHO it becomes a fortune game in with the case /fate draws the main line of the game.

Glad to talk about a strategy game so fine also if in textual state.

Great suggestions. Some I have considered, and will be adding to the game.

Since I want this to keep to the period it is set in, the main crops grown back then were wheat, barley and dates. Barley became a main crop as the soil started to become more saline. But having a variety was necessary for both feeding the population and for trade outside. I also want this game to be a learning experience as well as something fun and hard to play. It has to be educational as well as playable (My next large project after I finish my Baseball/Softball Statistical System, with complete Sabermetrics, and be free and open source to all - and is written in QB64!)

As a teen, I spent my summers (and part of my winters) on a cattle farm in update New York (Liberty, NY in the Catskills), working a heard of about 200+ poll Herefords and a small string of horses (mostly used by us) on about 900 acres. we grew several kinds of grass for hay and 35+ acres of corn for winter feed (made for great pheasant hunting in the fall, as we left most of the stalks up with some corn on them for the deer). Even had chickens.

I remember when crows changed from being a bird we could shoot anytime of the year to having its own hunting season in NY. However, like problem deer, any animal that threatened the well-being of the farm, we were able to shoot year round. Some years we would instead of riding the fence line spend a week or two camping on the ranch on crow duty. My shoulder would be sore by the end of the day just from shooting at them. We even rigged M-80's in tree tops and lit them to scare them away! Those were the days. We never had luck using plastic owls. The crows sit on top of them and crap all over it.

Back to the game, I have done quite extensive research into the time period, so I will be introducing preventive measures for all kinds of pestilences based on how they did it during Hammurabi's time. I will even introduce a simplified version of their actual monetary system, as there has to be a cost of goods as it was back then, including costs of preventive measures. 

I also have to do some work on the issue you bring up about rats. Yes, if the grain is sealed in clay jars, they are more protected from being destroyed, and I will be factoring that in. A good point.

But you know as well as I that introducing other animals to control others have their own problems. Chickens are easy, as if there are too many, they make a fine meal. Not so for cats, as their populations can get out of hand, and then they wind up wiping out all your free-ranging chickens! But such factors can be built into the game. I will have to reread my research on the methods they used to control pestilence as its been a while since I last looked at it.

We had plenty of dogs on the farm. I am partial to Australian Shepherds, and Daphne, my service dog, is an Aussie.

Thanks, great ideas, and I will be considering them.

As a farmer myself, I can give you a few ideas on a few features to add to the game.

1) A variety of crops.  Potatoes, beans, corn, wheat, whatnot.  Each has to have it's own unique seed and plant amount, and each will produce and feed a different number of people, as well as having different lifetime preservation times.  Just because rats got into your cellar and ate your potatoes, that doesn't mean they got into your pottery and ate your dried beans.

2) With a variety of crops comes a variety of predators.  Some of these predators can (and are) naturally edible as well, if you kill them.  Example:  Deer love to eat my corn fields.  I love to eat deer.  The natural cycle of nature makes us both get fatter with a good harvest.   

Other animals are just pest animals.  They honestly have no redeeming qualities to them, rather than to make a farmer's life hell.  Crows, for example, are one of these species.  Honestly, I'd rather have a whole swarm of rats invade my storage, than to have a murder of crows show up around my farm.  Berries and such can, and do, end up stripped completely bare by a single flock of crows -- and often they destroy the harvest in as short of a period of time as overnight.  I've personally seen whole orchards of cheery trees picked clean in just a few hours by a wave of crows that cawed and shit everywhere.

3) Pest prevention.  Many of these pest animals can be controlled by the simple introduction of natural predators.  One of the biggest deterrents to reduce insect damage to your crops is the introduction of free range chickens.  Believe it or not, a chicken eats a ton of insects on a regular basis, and they absolutely love to wander around the loose soil of a garden/field.  You have to keep them away from the crops until they're of suitable size to not damage them, but by the point that the plants have gotten large enough to leaf and bloom to draw insects, it's generally safe to allow chickens to wander amongst the crops.

Rats can be contained by adding cats.  Crows can be contained by judicious use of a shotgun.  (Just don't tell PETA or Uncle Sam.  In North America, American crows are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.   /CRY!!)  Dogs do a good job of keeping many varmints away.  (Which is why we domesticated dogs and cats to be our companions in the first place.)

Pesticides, fertilizers, lime and acidity are all things which you could add to a "can you feed your populace" simulation.  Invasive species and species incompatibility should be keep in mind as well.  For example, a walnut tree comes immediately to my mind, as my land is infested is thousands of the things.  There's a lot of acidity in raw, unhulled walnuts, and when they fall from the tree, they turn the soil around it acidic.  Any type of plant/grass that needs an alkaline base to grow good isn't going to grow near walnuts -- not without a lot of soil maintenance with adding lime to replenish the balance.

EDIT: You had almost 5,000 bushels in storage ??? (who's cheating?)

I ran a game where the insects destroyed my entire harvest for the year!

I never said it would be easy - what fun would that be??? You can change or limit the damage done by modifying the code that determines how much of a percentage each destroys.

I've never seen rats eat that much, but I did change it to eat only what is in storage, rather than the entire stockpile (storage + harvest), as I added insects to destroy the harvest!

I'm looking at what would happen if the initial population and larger amount of land owned would do to the challenge. If you can plant and harvest more at the start, you might last longer than 4 years!

Better luck in your next re-incarnation!

@George McGinn
hey but Hammurabi cheats!
see here how this casual step over destroyed my project of long life!
 

How about RAM drives?

And I remember when you needed to mortgage your house just to buy an EPROM programmer, if you knew what one was and did!

Wow this guy was 7 around the time I switched from GW to QB and got into data basing. Did not understand the project he was working on, sort of sounded like what I was doing with QB and Batch files with DOS but not sure.

Be nice to really meet Scott with a little sample of code from him, hint, hint...

@TempodiBasic do the words ROM drive also ring a nostalgia bell?