PowerBASIC site down.

[Rolf Brandt]

...and up again!

Rolf

[Jim Dunn]

Well, my post over at http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pbforums/showthread.php?t=53311 has gotten me locked out.

At least, that's what appears to have happened... I can read, but not reply or post.

I sure wish they would see their incredible need to communicate... I don't understand why they act the way they do.  : (

[George Bleck]

I don't see THAT post as anything they would ban you for.  In fact I would say it was much more poignant and less obnoxious then others I have read.

I don't like the rudeness I read in some other posts, and I didn't get that from your post.  Just my opinion though.

[Rolf Brandt]

@Jim:
I have to agree with George, there is nothing insulting with your comment. Maybe they didn't like the comment that customer are 'just customers and not family'.

Did they send you a notice that they blocked you? I wonder why they did not delete your message then?

??

Rolf

[Jim Dunn]

I sent a personal email to Jim Bailey, *NOT* asking for my account to be restored, but rather, that PowerBASIC turn over a new leaf, and start communicating... I hope that they get things in order and become better than they were.

[Peter Maroudas]

Jim

I applaud the comments you made on the PowerBasic site as they need to realise that
in a Business you can't have that mentality. I can just see Bob Zale fuming/boiling about some
of the things that has happen since he passed away. I remember once the PowerBasic site
was down for a Day and Bob was straight out with an apology to all on what happen.

Though I could be wrong in saying this, but Jim Bailey has no Professional Conduct experience, in saying
that possibly the Forums are not important to him, he may only be concerned with the Sales and Phone Support.


Peter Maroudas

[Paul Squires]

If I was certain that there was no future in PB then I would go 100% with FreeBasic. Finally learn the compiler source and try to better contribute to that project. Port more of my tools to better support PB and try to add the best features from PB to that language. It is amazing what they have done and it is getting better all the time. There is not much that language can't do and it has console and gui built in. It is not 64 bit yet but it does generate either asm or c code backends. There are Windows, DOS and Linux versions. Pretty cool.

[Jim Dunn]

If I was certain that there was no future in PB then I would go 100% with FreeBasic ...

Paul, is your "if not PowerBASIC then what" choice based on FreeBasic being open-source?

I know you "compiler guys" know each other, so you're more familiar with "who" is behind these things than I am, but PureBasic seems to have a whole lot more bells and whistles, and 64-bit, and cross-platform.

I'm *not* trying to start a war, just calmly curious why you would steer toward FreeBasic instead of PureBasic?

[Paul Squires]

Hi Jim, I haven't used PureBasic but I would be surprised if it has that much more bells and whistles than FreeBasic. I should read up on it. I do like FB because it is open source. There was incredible progress on the compiler for a long time and then v1ctor left (and a couple of others). There was a bit of a down period but others like dkl and fxm took up where the original programmers left off. That's the beauty of open source. If the guy running PureBasic died or left the project then what are you left with? FB uses the GCC tool chain for compiling so it has an incredibly popular and optimized backend compiler to create the exe or dll from generated asm or c source.

FB has a lot more C type of constructs to it but it is definitely BASIC. I heard that the PureBasic syntax is a bit "weird"? I guess though, like everything, once you get used to the syntax then it is no problem.

I see unlimited potential in FB and a language that I could add a lot to if I wanted to because it is open source.

[James Fuller]

FreeBasic was instrumental with my getting back into programming after an almost 2 year hiatus when it first hit the scene. I then migrated back to PowerBASIC but have kept an eye on the FreeBasic development. While very good it does have issues. As with most non c/c++ languages it needs all the header files translated and, as most know, there are probably millions of lines of code associated with sdk headers alone.

I gravitated back to BCX and then decided to fork it with bc9Basic. In my opinion c++ is the migration path but it is a  very difficult language. With a translator I can rid myself of a majority of the c++ nomenclature.
The original BCX was written in PowerBASIC DOS so it has a lot of the structure syntax as PowerBASIC.
I converted a number of applications to bc9Basic with minimal effort.

You do need a working knowledge of c/c++ to effectivly use bc9Basic.

James

[Jim Dunn]

Paul, you are right... PureBasic is "weird"... guess I will need to sit down and tinker with FreeBasic... to get a taste.

(but sure would miss Jose's headers...)

[Cho Sing Kum]

Paul,

If you are decided on FreeBASIC, then go for it. I hope you can fairly quickly make it support x64 and Windows 8 Metro (at least for Intel first), I will surely support you.

I know there are differing views on Windows 8 but it is the future. I can see the shift in Windows hardware. There is no going back, especially now that Microsoft has bought Nokia phone business.

The OSes are converging to one platform for desktop/notebook/tablet/phone. Must say at this time, Microsoft has the lead with Windows 8. Apple has moved although may not be so obvious yet - with the OS X Launchpad that resembles the iPad and the iPhone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launchpad_(OS_X)

The announcement of the iPhone 5S 2 days ago is further evidence. It is the first handphone with a 64-bit processor, that hint of the processor eventually crossing over to the MacBook Air? And merging of both OS X and iOS?

So for Windows side, Metro is the future. After playing around with XOOM (Android), iPad (iOS) and recently, ASUS VivoBook (Win8 x64), I think when we remove our self-imposed obstacle, Metro is vey nice.

I don't know about over your side of the world but here in Asia, the Windows hardware is changing very very fast and prices dropping. People are changing their hardware and using Win8 x64 Metro. I have been getting enquiries from my users whether my softwares will work in in their new machines.

Frankly, I have given up on PowerBASIC. Since only 32-bit and desktop, VB6, even though no longer supported, can still do it very nicely.  A lot of things can be done through WinAPI. And Microsoft is going to make sure it still works in future version of Windows desktop.

[Paul Squires]

If you are decided on FreeBASIC, then go for it.

  Not decided yet.

If I were to drop PowerBasic then FreeBasic is where I would most likely end up, but I am not ready to totally abandon PowerBasic just yet. Actually, last January/February I started to learn C# so an option for me would be to get back into that language if PB was no longer an option.

I do believe that we need to get 64 bit, however I am not convinced that Metro is the future.