Are we praying? :)
No ...
still waiting for a miracle .... :-\
What kind of miracle? About PowerBASIC inc?
Lets face it, Bob is not going to revive. And Bob was PowerBASIC. They died together.
But we dont need the company to be alive to enjoy the compiler, or profit with it.
sad but true. No matter what good intentions Vivian has/had, she will not be able to
do something without money, which she lacks.
The sooner we face it, the sooner we move ahead... not away, but ahead.
And no one would invest the amount of cash needed to buy Vivian out for such a limited distribution product. Let's face it... the business world has been Microsofted to death such that if you don't use one of the big boy's tools you are left in the dark...
But it would be 'Great' if you could get it distributed to mass public schools as a spring board into programming....
Some of the chatter on the PB site talks about Bob having the source or whole hard drives encrypted and nobody can open it.
If that is true then Bob "killed" PB himself. I knew him by the interaction on the PB site but I could see him encrypting things and being paranoid.
Has anybody made any cash offer Vivian?
I highly doubt any business would do that... and others did write code for PB products and what a nightmare that would have been if you have to go get Bob to open your files for you every day......
It would be interesting if say 50 or 100 people could pony up enough cash to by the business... but without a current statement of profit / loss who would even consider that...
I would like to know the annual sales figures for PB products though...
A better approach would be for someone to create a new PB language compatible compiler and market it towards existing PB customers. I can't imagine how much effort would be involved in trying to maintain and further enhance all that old asm code.
I cannot imagine trying to deal with all of the Assembler code. Unless the price was low to purchase the PB assets it probably would not be worth the effort required to keep the product functioning and to make a 64 bit version. If you don't eventually have a 64 bit version it will die anyway.
Maybe the plan is to just keep the PB company alive with minimal investment and just let it fade out.
How about a PB to FreeBASIC source code translator? I have not looked at FreeBASIC syntax but it must be close for Paul to port FF3. Of course there is not any money in that approach. And nobody would want to do commercial projects in a "free" compiler.
And we can just keep compiling until Microsoft releases an OS and things don't work any more. Has anybody tried to run a PB compiled program on Windows 10?
But it is clear that if you want to be viable going forward you better find a new tool. I don't think it is an emergency but it will be a necessity at some point.
If the forum attendence is any indication of interest in a language, then PowerBasic is heads and shoulders above the rest but even it I believe has no future. It seems Purebasic has really taken a dive recently which was not helped by Blitzbasic being shelved (which shares the quirky syntax with Purbasic). I would be hard pressed to investment much time in any of them for serious, long shelf life projects. Basic is truly a hobby only language I am sad to say.
In the last few minutes, I polled forum attendence. And remember this forum are world wide.
Site Total Users Reg User(excluding bots)
Powerbasic 293 24
Purebasic 43 2
Ionic Wind Basic 20 2
FreeBasic 20 2
Quote from: Mark Strickland on March 27, 2015, 10:27:58 AM
I cannot imagine trying to deal with all of the Assembler code. Unless the price was low to purchase the PB assets it probably would not be worth the effort required to keep the product functioning and to make a 64 bit version. If you don't eventually have a 64 bit version it will die anyway.
My opinion is that this is the main problem for any potential investor(s). Is there any other compiler out there these days which is written in Assembler? Are there any Assembler gurus out there wishing/willing to take over a compiler?
I "begged" for years that Bob "opens up" the compilers to allow 3rd parties to "hook into it". Although I always had RAD tools like FF in mind (
let's face it - DDT and PBForms are terrible hacks), my guess is that it would also help interested parties in extending the existing Assembler code with another programming language.
XOJO (formerly RealBASIC) has these stats this morning:
167,356 posts
19,098 conversations
10,822 members (not so sure about this number)
17 online
Other than VB from Microsoft this is probably the only implementation of BASIC that is considered "commercial". It also is multi-platform (Windows / OS X / Linux / iOS).
But it is expensive $$$ with annual renewal to stay current with releases.
Quote from: TechSupport on March 27, 2015, 10:12:03 AMA better approach would be for someone to create a new PB language compatible compiler and market it towards existing PB customers...
I have aquired a lot of experience in the PowerBASIC language and all involved in it. In theory i could put together a simple compiler, but to emulate all the functions would take a loooong time.
Quote from: Mark Strickland on March 27, 2015, 10:27:58 AM
I cannot imagine trying to deal with all of the Assembler code...
I can imagine it, and its not a very pretty picture. Specially when you consider that after all the stressing work of doing it, there is a (really slim) possibility that the *real deal* revives, or the final product is not accepted by the fellow PBers.
Quote from: TechSupport on March 27, 2015, 10:12:03 AM
A better approach would be for someone to create a new PB language compatible compiler
Isn't Eros Olmi's ThinBasic syntax compatible with PB ...?
Check out PB Forum - New Posts from the Big Guns and Vivian!
Also check out the New PB Updates just posted recently.
I hope they work it out and get things back into gear!
PowerBasic is not Dead - and although I've heard it more & more these days - I'll never believe it while I'm alive and still programming. :)
There's only one place to go when your down - get back up!
> Check out PB Forum - New Posts from the Big Guns and Vivian!
> Also check out the New PB Updates just posted recently.
Are you joking?
Yes! 8)
Elias Montoya - you still selling the egrid32 pro for Firefly ?
Let me know - I'm interested.
Thanks
I Think that was a year ago.
Quote from: Michael Meeks on April 04, 2015, 01:59:37 PM
Yes! 8)
Elias Montoya - you still selling the egrid32 pro for Firefly ?
Let me know - I'm interested.
Thanks
Hello Michael!, no, i do not own the rights anymore. The owner of the grid is now Brian Chirgwin,
But yes, you can still purchase Egrid32 here: http://egridpro.com/
I dont know what has done with it, i have not seen updates or upgrades... You can contact him
to with your inquiries.
If i may add... i have continued developing apps with Egrid32.
Quite happy with it. :)
If I can add (2)
I still do a lot of programming with eGrid. Pity this is nog being updated.
Thanks Elias.
Thanks Elias,
I just ordered the full package - so hopefully he's still watching his sales!
Regards
I know at least 1 person has offered to buy PB (it was a post in the Cafe).
I'm going off of memory, but I think they offered $30k and the offer was denied.
Quote from: Shawn Anderson on April 07, 2015, 06:14:27 PM
I know at least 1 person has offered to buy PB ... and the offer was denied.
What is left to buy ..?
And even if someone could buy the PB source code (wasn't Bobs drive encrypted and nobody knows the password or something ..?), who would be able to develop it further ..? Let alone convert it to 64 bits ..?
I'm assuming there are competent ASM programmers who could convert it to 64bit. From what I've read it's a daunting task.
I haven't heard about Bob's encrypted hard disk before here today so I can't address that.
Apparently Vivian thinks it's worth more than $30k but I doubt that offers are pouring in.
It's all speculation still anyway.
Considering:
- The compiler is worth more than what has been offered (30K).
- A few comments say PB is in debth for more than 5X that.
- That in order to cover that and buy PB would be more than 250k.
- The buyer should invest even more $$$ to convert it to 64bit.
- The buyer would need to sell around $350K just to cover expenses and start making some income...
The chances of someone reviving PB are very slim.
If someone with enough $$$ and love for compiler history would find it,
it would be great.
Michael,
Thank you for your purchase! Although i am not receiving any income anymore,
Egrid32 is still a dear creation, and it melts my heart to know that it is still atracting purchasers.