What is everyone doing these days?

[Paul Squires]

Hi Mark! Great to hear from you again and I'm happy to hear that you're doing well and enjoying your University of Louisville Med School job!

[Petrus Vorster]

I am still studying, so time for programming has gone to ZERO. Final year!!! So its into the books !!!!

Yes, i think most of us now realized that we had to bury the best compiler with its maker. Sad, but so.
FB also looks like the best alternative, and with you working on FF for it, will probably see the biggest part of the forum moving with you.

You are the key to this entire thing.
You made Powerbasic accessible to many of us with so much ease and fun, and I can only hope you will do that with FB.

Most of us are waiting for that HALELUJA moment when you present a FIREFLY with all the current perks, toys, functions and tools for FB.
Then you will see how this site ignite again.

[Jean-pierre Leroy]

Not sure if everyone realizes this or not but Jellyfish Editor and Firefly already exist for FreeBasic.

Thank you Paul, I was not aware that you released FireFly Visual Designer for FreeBasic version 1.71 the 10th of February, 2015.

I have made a few tests and so far I'm very happy with this new version of FireFly for FreeBasic.

I have a general question regarding FireFly Visual Designer for FreeBasic; it-is appropriate to use this forum for questions, suggestions, etc ... regarding FireFly for FreeBasic ?

Regards,
Jean-Pierre

[Paul Squires]

Hi Jean-Pierre, I have setup a new subforum for any customer that wants to explore the possibilities of FreeBASIC and FireFly.


I also just uploaded the first test version of FireFly that produces 64-bit exe's.

[Eddy Van Esch]

I just noticed this thread, so I am running a little behind. Good to receive news from you, Paul!

I am curious as to what all you guys have been doing over the past two years.

These days I spend most of my free time trading stocks. All the programming I have been doing the last 1.5 years was in function of that, writing tools for myself only. I am still using FireFly with PB. I just love FF too much to switch to anything else.
Reading that you are going to support a FF for FB is good news! That would be the only motivation for me to learn FB instead of PureBasic (which was my back-up plan for PowerBasic).

All my new FreeBasic tools will be free and open source.

How great as this may sound, I encourage you to charge a (modest) fee, atleast for your flagship software (FF/FB). This helps to stay motivated and make it worth your while...

If enough of you want to move over to FreeBasic then maybe I could create a new programming forum

That would be great!

so I will have to maintain FireFly/PB for quite some time.

Nothing but good news here! 
As said. FF with PB is currently my only programming tool. As long as nothing is 'seriously broken' I will keep using it. And perhaps study or follow up on FB in the same time.

Glad you are having fun programming again, Paul!!

Kind regards

[Jean-pierre Leroy]

We never did finish our book.  Maybe someday.

Did you start to write a book about FireFly? it is a very good idea indeed; a good title could be
"Writing professional software for Windows with FireFly".

Regards,
Jean-Pierre

[Mark Strickland]

Well it was going to be a programming book about the "good old days" of programming when life was simpler.  Simpler like using PowerBASIC and not Dot Net style programming with 7,000 new classes.

MacGyver would use PowerBASIC but not Dot Net.   

[Eddy Van Esch]

MacGyver would use PowerBASIC but not Dot Net.   

Don't think so. He would use a piece of barb wire and some chewing gum .... 

[Mark Strickland]

Probably true but maybe coupled with his rewired Texas Instruments scientific calculator that is powered by a Z-80 8-bit chip.

[Cho Sing Kum]

I want to say that while I have stayed away from PowerBASIC (and never seriously getting started due to lack of 64-bit compile), I do still visit this forum regularly. I read some while back that FreeBASIC is 64-bit compile capable although at that time still not perfect.

I have gone round the circle - RealBasic/RealStudio, PowerBASIC, PureBasic, Qt, C, C++, Objective-C, .NET (which I still hate), HTML/PHP/JavaScript/CSS/Jason and then Xojo(a.k.a RealStudio) - and I am still back with VB6. I have paid for the licenses for Realbasic/Xojo, PureBasic, PowerBASIC and have a BizSpark MSDN account.

PowerBASIC is dead.

Qt, C and C++ and Objective-C are too steep for me to learn.

PureBasic should be easy to learn but still have to go into OS API to do some or rather a fair bit of things. The result is that cross-platform (Win/OSX/Linux) advantage is lost.

Xojo is still not a finished product although I am very comfortable with it. Feel like VB6 in a way. I would have migrated to this if not for the lack or 64-bit compile which they have promised for years and I have waited for years. This year perhaps, fingers crossed. It is always playing catch up to new OS changes compounded by the very slooowwww development on their part. If not for the need to access MySQL on a server, I would not have upgraded to Desktop with Database Access 2 months ago. The advantage is cross-platform. All this will be gone when they start using the .NET library. They have decided.

.NET - I hate it. Still sluggish. Ship your source codes with the exe.

HTML/PHP/JavaScript/CSS/Jason - Exciting time spent with it. But still ship your source code with your product. The plus is can be used to write Windows Store Apps. The other use is Web Apps.

Swift - Ah, this new baby. I have not taken this up that seriously. Why? It is only for OS X and iOS. But if I find a development platform that can used for Windows Desktop and modern GUI, then Swift has to be it for the Mac side.

I mentioned Windows Desktop and modern GUI above. By modern GUI, it really means Metro GUI. But Metro GUI need not necessarily be for ARMs. Gone are WinRT tablets. Even the new Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3 are Intel only and the full real Wintel versions of Win 8.1 (soon to be Win 10). This means Desktop.

On a notebook and desktop, Win 10 will auto boot into the desktop. The desktop that we all know since Win95? Metro apps will run in a window on the desktop! It will not switch to the Metro, unless you prefer. Which brings me to the ideal of this product - DotNetBar for Windows Forms.

http://www.devcomponents.com/dotnetbar/

This product is actually a library of controls for Windows Forms. Within this library is a very interesting subnet of controls called Metro Style User Interface Controls for Windows Forms. This is desktop (Windows Froms) not Metro. The result is modern UI on the desktop.

http://www.devcomponents.com/dotnetbar/metro-ui-controls.aspx

We cannot run away from modern UI. It is here to stay. Good old common controls will looked aged in the next few years, if not already looking aged now.

This bring me to the question. Is it possible to bring modern UI to FreeBasic? Probably need to write the controls or use those from the WinAPI and owner draw them or somehow. The idea is to do this in FireFly for FreeBASIC (FF-FB). I know the problem of charging for FF-FB when the mother compiler is free. But when you get modern UI in addition to the existing common controls on the desktop, then I think is a very different story.

I am happy to pay for it.

Then it will be FreeBASIC for Windows (Windows phones does not matter) and Swift for OS X and iOS.

[Michael Meeks]

Well,  Interesting Topic.

It's been years since I made a post anywhere - but to say that PowerBasic is Dead?  It's made me a 6 Figure Living for the past decade - and my retirement within the next 10 years - I'll be well taken care of. 

I'm going strong with so many projects in the works - all to be completed with PowerBasic.  Firefly I hadn't used for years - so I just purchased it again last week and I must say,  It's Amazing!  Those responsible for the lastest version - I commend you all.

I would like to see a PowerBasic 64Bit Verison.  If this happen - that would change a few minds.  I don't know - and looking at the site - I'm not sure if the store is open or closed.  However, I did order another license of PBWin10 a few weeks ago for another programmer that works for me - and it took about a week for them to respond. 

For now,  32bit is working just fine.  My clients are happy that upgrades and fixes are very far in between.  Most of the time - it's usually extra features is what they really want!  I don't think 64Bit would make that much difference at this point in time.

I also use EZGUI (latest Version) - which is also one of my top designers.  I can't thank Chris Boss enough for the help he has always given to me.

So - Head Ups - Chin High - Keep Programming - Cause someone out there needs your skills

[Mark Strickland]

Ultimately if nothing happens with PB it will be dead.  For a while 32bit is OK unless you are trying to do something that requires a huge memory model it works pretty good.

I am still using PB but my direction has changed and I mostly use XOJO for Web Apps.

I am hoping that is survives because I like the syntax and it fills a need for me.  At some point in the future it may not compile programs that will run on a yet to be released version of Windows.

But am less than 10 years from retirement and that raises the odds it will be OK for me.

[Michael Meeks]

Me too - I'll 67 in 10 years - so I hope I last that long!

Just wanted to update my last post - PB just made some announcements - Vivian made some comments - and a new update to PBWin10 to 10.04 was just recently posted.

At least I can say that ( like you ) - by the time the changes that will come take hold - I'll be retired!  It was a great run - Turbo Basic, QuickBasic 4.5,  Visual Basic (all),  PowerBasic (all)

It was and still is a great ride!

[José Roca]

> Just wanted to update my last post - PB just made some announcements - Vivian made some comments - and a new update to PBWin10 to 10.04 was just recently posted.

Please, read the date of the post, Mar 27th, 2013. Two years ago!

[Richard Marchessault]

Paul:

Continuing to use FF3 which is working just fine. I would be very interested in FF for FreeBasic, let me know if and when this becomes available. You mentioned that you are working on a grid control for FreeBasic. Doe that mean that MLG cannot be used with FreeBasic or are you creating something different?