PureBasic for Blitz programmer

Inner · Post by **Inner** » Wed May 21, 2003 10:31 am

be thankful that you don't have to use C/C++ to code windows apps, it's a nightmare!

LJ · Post by LJ » Sat May 24, 2003 6:43 am

I have programmed in Blitz3D, Blitz +, and now PureBasic.

For me, it all boils down to 2 things, size and speed.

For writing Windows utility, a file about 700K in Blitz+ was 15K in Purebasic. That's beyond just being huge, that's the difference between bloat ware and a beautiful efficient piece of code that only assembly language programmers could write, at least until PureBasic. A current project I'm working on, the code is so small, that I'll probably get admirers e-mailing me and asking how I got the .exe to be small and yet the program does so much.

PureBasic is more work to learn than Blitz+, but 700K .exe versus 15K is your reward should you accept the challenge, and, to me, it is a challenge worth excepting indeed. Best of luck.

robleong · Post by **robleong** » Sat May 24, 2003 8:08 am

Thanks, LJ - good enough reason, and well illustrated!

RedRebel · Post by **RedRebel** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 11:37 pm

I'll sell you my registered version of blitz for $20.00
Email starsoft@g-netfree.com

Inner · Post by **Inner** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 2:34 am

Funny you should bring size into the matter, 700kb even UPX'ed about 250/300kb is still way to much for "hello world" under a application development stand point, Mark himself is/was rumored to have said that now in hynsight he should have done something about the executable size, this is supposed to be address with BlitzMax however. for a game 700kb is okay ' I suppose! '.

Revolver · Post by **Revolver** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 2:36 am

I am a registered owner of Blitz2D, and praised it religiously for about a year, until I really got comfortable with what PB could do. It took me a while to get used to the quirks (the object pre-numbering was new to me, but I hear its going to be optional soon), and when I first got my copy I was very frustrated because of the lack of guides for total newbies. It seems though that several websites have newbie guides and examples, and of course the great community was there to help me and will be there to help you too. Just recently I've started discovering the power behind PureBasic's sprite commands, compared to BlitzBasic's. I'm going to be writing a 2D online multiplayer action game using PB, and will write the server software, chat/matchmaking client, and map editor all in PureBasic. It can handle all of these things great! Small exe size(even smaller if you UPX it), inline asm, advanced data structures, speed(my tests show its about 2X faster at simple calculations than Blitz), built in fast alpha blending sprite commands(something Blitz users have been begging for for years), incredibly easy use of the Windows API, all of these things are great and make PureBasic definitely worth your while.

Karbon · Post by **Karbon** » Thu Jun 05, 2003 4:51 am

I like Blitz for games but B+ is no where near PB's functionality for writing apps. It was a little hard getting used to some of the PB stuff but the transition (for applications) was pretty easy. Good luck!

robleong · Post by **robleong** » Thu Jun 05, 2003 5:04 am

Thanks guys for the additional comments! Certainly very persuasive reasons for buying PB.

robleong · Post by **robleong** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:18 pm

OK, this is an update. I know this is very belated, but I just wanted to let you all know that I've finally purchased PureBasic, after more than two and a half years of pondering! Well, you know, I've been busy writing games using Blitz...

Thanks to Steve Elliott for that final persuasive kick!

So, more newbie questions coming soon...

Steve Elliott · Post by **Steve Elliott** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:11 pm

Better late than never Rob.

I've been using it for just over a week, have learnt so much and written my first PureBASIC program - great language. Still waiting on that nice alpha PNG support though to spruce it up.

And I still can't believe how small the exe files are.

LuCiFeR[SD] · Post by **LuCiFeR[SD]** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:47 pm

My favorite thing that PB has over any flavour of blitz is in-line asm. Asm has always been a huge love of mine (although I hate x86 asm... but it is usable) it is nice to be able to bash the hardware if you need to.

file-size means nothing in this day and age and I don't personally see that as a selling point for PB... What i do see as a selling point is the way Fred breaks his balls to fix pretty much any problem people find with pb, or if he doesn't have time to fix it, Fred or one of the members of this community step in and provide a work around. It is the way that Fred and the community communicate with each other and come up with a short/long-term solution to get the job done! there's my 2c worth

stevev4v · Post by **stevev4v** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:59 am

I've used Blitz and Blitz3D since day one and Purebasic now for a couple of weeks. On the plus side, Purebasic syntax is very similar to Blitz and that is good. Also on the plus side, you can create real applications with Purebasic which as you know is not something Blitz does well at all. On the downside, Purebasic is very much lacking in the 3D department even compared to Blitz3D's antiquated features. BlitzPlus is there but you lose 3D capabilities where at least you get some 3D capabilities with Purebasic. Purebasic is not at the point where I will stop using Blitz3D but I am hopefult taht someday Purebasic's 3D will get some attention and I'll have a Basic that "does it all".. right now, it seems no matter what you try you end up having to make some compromise between application and game programming. I own DarkBasic Pro, IBasic, Blitz3D, and Purebasic and none of these are an end-all-be-all programming language although I hope Purebasic ends up being the one that is.

Kale · Post by **Kale** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:07 am

stevev4v wrote:I've used Blitz and Blitz3D since day one and Purebasic now for a couple of weeks. On the plus side, Purebasic syntax is very similar to Blitz and that is good. Also on the plus side, you can create real applications with Purebasic which as you know is not something Blitz does well at all. On the downside, Purebasic is very much lacking in the 3D department even compared to Blitz3D's antiquated features. BlitzPlus is there but you lose 3D capabilities where at least you get some 3D capabilities with Purebasic. Purebasic is not at the point where I will stop using Blitz3D but I am hopefult taht someday Purebasic's 3D will get some attention and I'll have a Basic that "does it all".. right now, it seems no matter what you try you end up having to make some compromise between application and game programming. I own DarkBasic Pro, IBasic, Blitz3D, and Purebasic and none of these are an end-all-be-all programming language although I hope Purebasic ends up being the one that is.

Purebasic v4 is here very soon!

stevev4v · Post by **stevev4v** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:06 am

Kale wrote: Purebasic v4 is here very soon!

version 4

.. well, it's hard to get too excited about something I don't know anything about so do you have any details?

Also, on a side note... Purebasic does seem to be vigorously supported and Blitz3D.. well, if you have been using it then you know the story there.

robleong · Post by **robleong** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 5:42 am

Thanks for your comments, guys. For now, I'm going to continue writing games in Blitz, but begin learning PureBasic to write some apps/utilities. I look forward to v4.0!

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