buy or not buy

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Sat Apr 27, 2002 8:47 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by bluez.

well, in spite of all the replies, i'm still missing the answers (he said, ungrateful)

so... let's have a look at them again, and if anyone could tell me if it's a go or no go, i'd extremely appreciate it!

1. tcp/ip and udp (either using direct api calls or build in commands), got this properly working in gfabasic... what can purebasic do here?

2. bitblit (sprites and stuff, got this properly working in gfabasic)... just your opinion, saw some samples and read some text... looks okay, perhaps interesting is how it compares with direct api calls

3. sound (multiple wav files, select one, set volume, fade in / out, start / stop playing etc.) don't have this working under gfa... this is something i am extremely interested in!

4. compatibility... what are the experiences between the different versions or the latest version under the different os's? although i have to admit it's gonna' be primarily windows, and then 98, nt4, and xp, no me for me or my code...

5. two VERY cool aspects of gfabasic were the online syntax checking (meaning you could only have a single command per line, but you could not leave that line in the editor as long as there was a syntax error on that line), the other one was foldable procedures

6. "PureBasic is easy to learn, coz its a Basic-Language"... be that as it may be, i noticed some differences... i would assume while wend select endselect repeat until if else endif procedures locals etc. are fairly standard... now, although purebasic is basic, does it support structs?

7. "You can do that in PureBasic.Believe it.If you ever want to code a small, efficient, fast and systemnear Programm, its easy in Pure. You have full acess to the Windows-api. If you ever want to make a connection using UDP ? why not doing it easily with the Windows-Api."... well, perhaps i would like to have some build in commands to save me some work?

anyway, i've got tcp/ip working using the api's, and although i haven't tried udp yet, i should be able to do so...

8. "PureBasic has a very fast 'bug-support'"... with one coder i would assume so

or are there more coders involved?

9. "And note, Fred can only fix bugs as he knows.So mail him or take a look at the IRC Channel: #PureBasic"... sorry, don't do irc

10. "PureBasic has Inline-ASM.That is so cool."... so does gfa, although i never used it, i admit...

11. "Its cheap.I owned also Powerbasic($199) which has not such possibilities."... no comments on that one yet

12. "Pure can access ODBC, the standard in Database-Access.Its easy and cheap
if you use MySQL."... interesting, how easy is it to set up some small database? i noticed there is no command to 'lock' a file or a part of a file, but i can hardly demand people to install odbc stuff... any suggestions?

again, i'm still puzzled if i should buy it or not... having spent *a* *lot* of money on original gfabasic interpreters and compilers (amiga, dos, windows) to only have gfa disappear is quite saddening... :-/

so convince me!

... this copy of me has been unregistered for 36 years (no spam please)

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Sat Apr 27, 2002 8:51 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by bluez.

just noticed something... fred, with the new editor... will purebasic be delivered including source for the new editor? in general, how difficult is it to use an external editor? and, does the editor do online syntax checking a la gfa?

(it's a bit doubleup compared with previous post, but what the heck, better said twice than never)

... this copy of me has been unregistered for 36 years (no spam please)

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Sun Apr 28, 2002 2:39 am

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Danilo.

@bluez:
Why dont you read the PB online help ??

You are asking about structures and simple stuff
that is in the manual (OK, not everything is in the help).

Code: Select all

Structure mystruc
  var1.l
  var2.l
   StructureUnion
     unionVar1.l
     unionVar2.l
   EndStructureUnion
  var3.l
EndStructure

Some of the things you ask about can be
done only with WinAPI atm.
At this point its up to you.
If you know how to program WinAPI
you can do _everything_.
If you dont know WinAPI or you dont
want to use it, you are very limited in
many things.

The WinAPI is sooooo big - you cant
include everything as simple BASIC
commands.

Code: Select all

1.) You need many, many years to implement
    everything that is possible under Windows atm.
    After this time you have like 50.000 BASIC commands.
    (the user wants help for all this commands,
     so somebody (Fred?) has to write a _BIG_
     documentation for all this commands.
     If you know Â´MSDNÂ´, you know thats impossible
     for 1 person)


2.) Now you are still not up-to-date with all
    commands, because Windows grows nearly every day.

I found PB at version 2.60.
I took the time to read the whole manual
and all examples.
After that i knew that PB is the right thing
for me and i spend the few bucks.
I got the full version of PB and i still think
this are the best 59 Euro i ever invested in a
programming language (beside the $100 for TASM
many years ago).

cya,
...Danilo

(registered PureBasic user)

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 9:46 am

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Stan.

...
in general, how difficult is it to use an external editor?
...

Can't tell you for all external editors, but it is very easy to use with
ConTEXT ( a freeware powerful editor see :
http://www.reelmediaproductions.com/pb/
Wayne and Cantor even provided templates for PB. syntax highlighting in
ConTEXT, you can even define 4 keys to compile with differents options ... ).

More generally speaking even if there may still be some bugs in PB, and the
documentation maybe a bit tame, PB is a mature language which cost less than
GFA used to, offers ulimited free upgrades to registered owners, and GREAT
SUPPORT from the creator Fred AND the experienced users ( too numerous to
mention everybody ... ) who really try to help and don't turn you down when
you ask newbies questions.

Hope this helps.

Stan

Since I attended an MS course, my programs no longer have bugs ... just hidden "features" !! [ PB. registered user ]

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 11:19 am

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by PB.

> it is very easy to use with ConTEXT

One thing I like about the PureBasic editor is pressing F1 on a PureBasic or
API keyword, and have it auto-open in Help. Can any external editors do this?

PB - Registered PureBasic Coder

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 1:41 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Stan.

> it is very easy to use with ConTEXT

One thing I like about the PureBasic editor is pressing F1 on a PureBasic or
API keyword, and have it auto-open in Help. Can any external editors do this?

PB - Registered PureBasic Coder

ConTEXT can do it, at least provided the help is in HTML format ...
The way to do it is clearly documented in ConTEXT using JAVA as an
example. However I confess I didn't try to do it for PB.

It is supposed to work with .chm files but it don't work fully :

- Under PB editor when you use F1 on Blue for instance it opens the help
for Blue,

- Under ConTEXT doing the same thing opens the help and put you at the
top of the help index ( you have to scroll the list of keywords by
yourself ), I consider it as a minor price to pay for being able to
open multiple files, organizing them in a project, and many other features
the PB editor does not support ... In fact I think I get the best of both
worlds : a very good free editor, and a very good Basic Compiler.
If Fred allows it I could send his chm help to the author of ConTEXT, to
see if it could do the same as the PB editor ( I suppose this is relatively
easy to do for .chm wizards, but that's only the assumption of a complete
ignorant of the subject ... ).

Give ConTEXT a try : it is free and it does not modify the PB files so that
you can still go back to the PB editor if you feel like it.

Hope this helps.

Stan

Since I attended an MS course, my programs no longer have bugs ... just hidden "features" !! [ PB. registered user ]

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 2:42 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by tinman.

4. PureBasic has a very fast 'bug-support'
In no other Language i know and own, there is such a fast support.
This is possible, coz Pure is based on a lib-system and Fred is one of us.
And note, Fred can only fix bugs as he knows.So mail him or
take a look at the IRC Channel: #PureBasic

That's the first time I've heard of that channel - and it is not mentioned on the PB site or the PB Resources site. So what server does it run on, who organises it, etc?

--
It's not minimalist - I'm increasing efficiency by reducing input effort.

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 3:04 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by El_Choni.

I think it is here:

irc.debian.org 6667
#PureBasic

Bye,

El_Choni

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 6:26 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Danilo.

>One thing I like about the PureBasic editor is pressing F1 on a PureBasic or
>API keyword, and have it auto-open in Help. Can any external editors do this?

UltraEdit can do this for highlighted words.
Highlight a word + press F1 = opens the Help.
(You can add new Help files: "Help\Add Help Files")

Maybe you can write a MACRO for highlighting
the Word under cursor and press F1 automatically.

cya,
...Danilo

(registered PureBasic user)

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Wed May 01, 2002 11:05 am

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by bluez.

i worked my way through a lot of the forum materials, and i've seen some interesting remarks and issues... in general it looks okay...

i think the main thing open would be this... i would love to have a syntax checking editor (and would build one myself, if necessary)... danilo, ultraedit is an external editor, how did you hook it up with purebasic? save a file, then call the external compiler?

... this copy of me has been unregistered for 36 years (no spam please)

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Thu May 02, 2002 5:12 am

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Danilo.

just call pbcompiler.exe from within UltraEdit
or from any another external Editor that supports that.

In UltraEdit you can do it like this
(for running a program):

Menu: Advanced\Tool Configuration

Code: Select all

Command Line  : drive:\path\pbcompiler.exe %F
Menu Item Name: PureBasic - RUN

Now look in the Menu: Advanced\

There is a new entry at the bottom, like this:
"PureBasic - RUN Ctrl+Shift+0"

Go to "Advanced\Configuration\Key Mapping",
search the entry "AdvancedUserToolx" (x = 1 - 10)
and assign the key "F5" to it.
Now you can execute the source by pressing F5.

cya,
...Danilo
(registered PureBasic user)

Edited by - Danilo on 02 May 2002 06:20:42