Purebasic Library

[rambodash]

I know this may sound a bit crazy and there is low probability it would be done, but what if a Purebasic Static Library was created. All the great PB commands could be used from this library from any programming language. AGK is doing the same thing as well: http://www.appgamekit.com/go-native.php

I thought it was a good idea because its difficult to do various things in other languages (e.g. C/C++) that purebasic can do easily like networking, gui interface, and creating 2d/3d games. C/C++ has boost and qt but they are extremely difficult to use and put together.

You might think then why not use PB, but the reality is a lot of people won't use PB just because it's Basic syntax and prefer to use popular languages or one they are familiar with. Not only will a library attract more people to PB products, it can compete with the other libraries since it is multi platform and easy to use.

[langinagel]

Sorry rambodash,

I cannot follow your argumentation.
When Purebasic provides the advantage of a good, understandable and less-complex library over more than one platform, why should that not be the motivation for others to change to Purebasic?

If people won't use Purebasic because its just BASIC syntax and therefor too easy to understand they should try to build libraries for Brainf**k.
Understandability and Readability of source code are main requirements on a language as well as on the programming style. Purebasic supports this.
If OOP is really necessary, then there are supporting tools for this as well in Purebasic.

And the argument: "I never programmed Basic before, I have to learn it and this is big effort" is nice but irrelevant. Evereone with sufficient knowledge on programming should find the same command tokens in Purebasic as in his "home-language".

So much for me....and I never touched the argument of the licence.

Greetings
LN

[rambodash]

I know it may sound a bit illogical, but some people seem to be allergic to basic. Just hearing the word Basic makes them scoff. Theres also a lot of other reasons why someone might be unable to switch over to a new language. (It might be a team project where they are using C or something)

I mostly use Purebasic for all my programming because its my favorite language and does everything I need it to do, but I would hesitate to put it on a resume, or propose the use of Purebasic for a serious team project (unless the members of the team were all pB users).

Theres nothing wrong with its features its actually better than a lot of popular languages I've used, but to others who are unfamiliar with PB think its a beginners language, and its just for hobbyists or its limited etc. Thats just the type of assumptions people will make.

You can also see that PB doesn't even rank in as a popular language anywhere(http://langpop.com). We're a very small community.
Selling a commercial license for static library package means all the people using these other languages (and thats a lot of people) will join the PB community, and possibly switch over to using the pure basic language itself. Just an idea

[Demivec]

You can also see that PB doesn't even rank in as a popular language anywhere(http://langpop.com). We're a very small community.

Note: these results are not scientific. They are interesting nonetheless, and are an attempt to glean as much data as possible notwithstanding the fact that gathering precise data is impossible. We hope you find them interesting as well. Constructive suggestions on improving them are welcome

The website you linked to does not include statistics for PureBasic. If it did you could at least make a more better unreliable comparison based on its non-scientific information it presents.

Regarding your idea of a static library, I don't think it is a good idea nor do I think it has any chance of happening. Fred knows his creation is useful and performs well. He has specifically prohibited users from doing as you mentioned (i.e. creating a library of its commands) and so it follows that he is aware of this possibility. I think to do so would run counter to his 'vision' of the language and its use.


Why not have other languages create static libraries of their commands so they can be called from PureBasic when the need arises? I am sure that will help to make other languages more popular with PureBasic users without requiring PureBasic users to deal with the stigma of learning a 'non-Basic' language just to get some additional functionality.