PureBasic Forums - English

The use of OLE strings was ingenious (VB uses it internally, but just not for calls to DLLs). It allowed the language to have one of the most powerful string engines in the software industry.

It was ingenious only because it allowed a narcissistic control freak to shut off his product from many third-party tool vendors so that often, only tools developed in his language could be easily used with his language.

This is also why I strongly support a common, standard syntax for Basic. I can use code I wrote 20 years even today in PowerBasic and some of that code does valuable work.

Yes, I commented before about PowerBASIC not really changing over the years, and I have used it since it was TurboBASIC. Programming languages remaining stagnant is never a good thing.

Now some may take issue with this and I understand. But for a moment, in your mind list all the types of software you have written and what they do. How much of it has been for business ? How much of it was custom and for business and needed to be developed quickly ? What kind of business data did your software have to deal with ?

Many of us, write custom software for businesses and use PureBasic because of the speed of development.

You mentioned POS. One of my friends of many years from various programming communities wrote a wonderful POS package for restaurants using PureBasic and it allowed him to buy a new home with the money he made off of the product. He was actively selling and supporting the product up until his untimely death.

But PowerBasics string engine was not designed just so it follows industry standards.

Which is part of why it was never widely used in the industry and was always a niche product due to its severe limitations. Businesses and those developing products for businesses need a programming language that adheres to accepted industry standards.

Powerbasics string engine is unmatched in the industry when it comes to get work done.

He mostly wrapped the native Windows OLE string engine.

The backtrack that Microsoft is currently making with Windows 8.1 is a direct result of them realizing where their "bread and butter" comes from. Not from consumers, but from the enterprise.

No, it was a result of Microsoft losing 34 Billion Dollars in one day due to the consumers rejection of Windows 8.

Few realize how immersed the world is with Windows. Add to that embedded Windows and it is a huge platform which nothing else can compare to.

I think you mean Linux. It is literally everywhere. From your microwave, your DVD player, etc.

Go to Walmart and what do you see ? Dozens of computers all with Windows. Then one lone Chrome PC. So which platform is the biggest ?

Any normally stocked Walmart will only have a small handfull of desktops. However, you will find two aisles full of tablets and mobile phones.

Don't ask a computer programmer what OS he likes or uses ?

Like I said, you should ask your target demographic. Which is the consumer. Consumers really hate Windows 8.

Ask people on the job, who are not that computer smart, but simply use the computer they have been given and simply know how to use the software the company provides and trains them on. Likely it isn't Linux. Most likely it is Windows.

Depends on the business, many are moving to something else.

Now some big players in the industry are pushing stuff like Android (the internet of things) for all sorts of devices. Why ? Because Android is better ? No because it is free.

No, not free. Some hefty patent licenses involved for most companies pushing out Android devices.

it is still the most popular platform in business today, hands down.

Making up something and believing it, doesn't make it true. It only makes you look foolish. Linux is the most widely used operating system in all platforms combined.

2013 was the year Microsoft lost the race. Over 9 billion ARM processors were sold last year. This is more processors than Intel has made in its entire history. Until Microsoft can get something competitive on ARM, they can never get back what they have lost in the industry. Each year, they will lose more and more.

Windows tablets are staring to make headway.

For Surface 2, MS produced much less hardware, so that they could claim the products sold out. Many of the new Windows tablets that are coming out and were debuted at CES are mostly hybrid devices capable of booting into Android.

Recently you could buy the latest Dell 8 inch windows tablet for only $229 which is cheap.

It is also a piece of garbage and only has 2GB of RAM which is not sufficient to run modern versions of Windows.

I would love to see some examples of software being used by major companies ?

I really want to know !

You need to remember that anybody writing for a major company is going to be under a NDA and no legitimate business would ever release the names of their customers even if they were not under a NDA. Privacy is generally something to be respected and honored.

Sadly, most custom business software for major companies is developed in-house. Always has been, which makes it very hard for indie developers to target. Most indie developers or those with small companies will be targeting smaller businesses.

Anybody using PureBasic to write commercial grade software for any big name companies or industries, which we would recognize ?

I have used PureBasic to do contract work for a major defense contractor that you would recognize, a major charity that most would recognize, along with a major telecom that most would recognize, and some smaller non-national businesses and charity organizations. Everything from inventory tracking, mailing databases, contribution tracking, medical records database for animals and some other things. That is as detailed as I will go.


You should spend some time with the language if you wan't to know what it is capable of. A bit of time with any language should give a coder an idea of what it is capable of.

I see so many words. It's hard to believe they were all really needed.

And I think this should be in General Discussion, since nothing has been developed or being developed.

Kuron wrote:You should spend some time with the language if you wan't to know what it is capable of. A bit of time with any language should give a coder an idea of what it is capable of.

@C. Boss
And you should spend some time to really use of linux and his API.
Windows is the most used OS for Desktop PCs, but not the best!
The Dominant OS worldwide is linux, found in your watch, tv, router, server, phone ...
and not the price is the reason, linux is fast, stable, configurable, better filesystem,
better RAM-Usage, better Networktools and so on.

For your business is windows a good choice, that's all, but this makes windows not better as any other OS.

Greetings - Thomas

Thank you for the link to the poll about PureBasic users !

Developing for Windows compared to Linux 3 to 1

Developing for Windows compared to Mac OS 7 to 1

What was that about Windows not being so important and how other platforms are superior ?

Even a poll done among users shows Windows development is the primary area PureBasic users target.

I purchased ProGUI as a possible GUI library which gave me many of the capabilities needed, but am hesitant to utilize it in a commercial project due to the uncertainty of its future. Fortunately he offered a Platinum license with source code, but having to maintain the library somewhat defeats the benefit of purchasing one. Chris (PrinceD ProGUI) is an incredibly talented individual who has had to put ProGUI aside for now and seek other work to support himself which is understandable but sad. You might look at some of the functionality he offers as a point of reference as to what might be needed in developing your own feature set. Should you decide to move forward I will be one of your first customers.

Could a mod please move this thread to 'Chest Beating'? Thanks...

Could a mod please move this thread to 'Chest Beating'? Thanks...

C Boss wrote:

You are the beginner here, the guy that has no clue about cross-platform programming.

Don't be so quick to put me in the newbie catagory. I may be new to PureBasic, but I have been programming long before some of the members on this forum may have been born and all with Basic.

Just saying PureBasic is different from PowerBasic. You can't just start and write FUNCTIONs and SUBs.
In PureBasic you write "Procedure" for both. It is just different, and you need to get used to it.
Usually takes some time to get used to the new syntax and coding style, especially if you are used to
PowerBasic/QBasic syntax for a very long time. The BASIC syntax is burnt into your brain, and now
you have to start anew and learn the PureBasic way.

Good luck and welcome to PureBasic!

C Boss wrote:Thank you for the link to the poll about PureBasic users !

Developing for Windows compared to Linux 3 to 1

Developing for Windows compared to Mac OS 7 to 1

What was that about Windows not being so important and how other platforms are superior ?

Even a poll done among users shows Windows development is the primary area PureBasic users target.

Did you look at the date on that poll?

For historical perspective it is good. But, the numbers may be slightly different now.

That said, I am a firm believer that third-party Windows-only tools/libs can work as long as there are 32-bit and 64-bit versions of those tools and libs.

C Boss wrote:Don't be so quick to put me in the newbie catagory. I may be new to PureBasic, but I have been programming long before some of the members on this forum may have been born and all with Basic.

And I've been programming in BASIC since it was invented. I accessed the original Dartmouth College time-sharing system from GM's research labs in Detroit. It was the fourth language that I learned after Fortran, Autocoder, and Algol. But it came before Assembler, PL/I, COBOL, Forth, Pascal, .........

I just thought I'd mention that.

@Chris Boss:
After reading Computer Workshop is moving on ! in PowerBasic forums
and watching your video Part 1: Meet the developer two things come to mind:

Chris Boss wrote:I will be looking at other BASIC compilers for new markets, even considering C (not C++).

You can develop PureBasic libraries in C. If you consider to write libraries for C,
you could make it available as PureBasic libraries at the same time. The tools to
make a PureBasic library out of .obj/.lib files are included with PureBasic in
the folder "SDK".
To get a quick overview how it works, take a look at PBOSL.
It will show you how to make PB libraries in ASM, C, and in PB itself by using Tailbite.


You also make GUI designers. Doing a full featured Delphi/VisualBasic-like IDE with integrated designers and everything
working seamlessly together, could be an idea. Rapid Application Development. Maybe the right job for you, but of course a very big project.
Combined with add-on libraries, and at a professional level, there could be a market here. Can't guarantee it, just my thoughts.

The more platforms you can support, the more potential customers. If you do cross-platform programming, you usually don't
buy Windows-only components because of its limited usefulness. Just something to keep in mind IMO. Of course there are still Windows-only
developers, but I think more and more people are looking into cross-platform programming to find new markets.

are developers who cator to the banking industry using PureBasic ?

I can't answer the question, but what I can answer is this IS something PureBasic is potentially capable of. However, this is not something PowerBASIC is capable of. Most banks are using Unix, AIX, Solaris or Linux. Those that aren't are usually now running a 64-bit version of Windows Server. Compare this to ten-fifteen years ago, when you still had many banks running OS/2.

Some ATMs in small banks are still using a non-server version of Windows, but even ATMs are moving to 64-bit versions of Windows.

RS/6000 systems are still in wide use in banks. Quite possibly the best computers ever made for the corporate world. You simply can't kill them. 20 years from now, you will still have some RS/6000 systems in use, however by then System p or Power Systems should definitely be the dominant system and should have replaced the majority of the old RS/6000 systems.

Kuron wrote:

RS/6000 systems are still in wide use in banks. Quite possibly the best computers ever made for the corporate world.

The nostalgia is strong in this one! I loved working on the RS/6000 back in the day. I used to go to the AIX conferences that IBM would hold in Dallas and had a great time, aside from the miserable heat in Texas. And as far as banking goes, let's not forget about COBOL. Not a personal favorite, but it's still the language that about 70% of the world's financial software is written in.

Mike Stefanik wrote: The nostalgia is strong in this one! I loved working on the RS/6000 back in the day. I used to go to the AIX conferences that IBM would hold in Dallas and had a great time, aside from the miserable heat in Texas. And as far as banking goes, let's not forget about COBOL. Not a personal favorite, but it's still the language that about 70% of the world's financial software is written in.

I went to a few of the AIX conferences, too. The heat sucked, but I got to come home to more heat in Tampa, Florida, so there wasn't a lot of difference for me. As to COBOL, it was amazing the amount of COBOL and FORTRAN contract work I was able to pick up in 98-99.

heartbone wrote:Welcome Boss.
The command set documentation allows a quick check see if it PureBasic is a viable alternative and worth supporting.
I am fairly confident that the vast majority of the Windows commands work as advertised.
I am very curious if you could disclose the other top candidate BASICs?
Thanks.

C Boss wrote:I am though not flowing with money I can throw away, so I make purchases very carefully. Recently purchase dark Basic Studio because it was very good deal and looked very interesting to me.
To give you and idea of the field of BASIC's out there which I have checked into a number of them:
http://basic.mindteq.com/index.php?i=full
I am also considering porting code to C or C++, possibly using a parser like BCX.
To be honest, I have been using PowerBasic for over 14 years and it will be very hard to replace.

Thanks for the link to "Comprehensive list of basic-like languages for Windows and Linux which can build stand alone EXEs files.",
but I've already found the best BASIC for my use.
You do know that was a very obtuse answer you gave, not the answer that I was looking for Boss.
(As an aside Boss, if you qualify a statement with "To be honest," what am I to infer about your other statements?)
Considering the amount of time that you must have spent typing this out Friday, I'm thinking this was a little closer to the truth.

C Boss wrote:So what other kind of programming languages do I current have on my PC ?
I have Visual Studio (free version) installed on my Windows 8 laptop for learning how to build Metro apps.
I have an older version of Visual C# (oh I dislike C though)
I just bought Dark Basic Studio which looks interesting. (was on sale for onlt $58 so price was right)
I have what is now freeware, BlitzPlus.
I purchased Android for Basic, which looks promising.
FreeBasic looks interesting.
I am considering Purebasic, but haven't bought it yet. $107 isn't cheap (for me anyway)
I would even be interested in building a compiler, say via some open source tools. I would have to hone up on my assembler skills though. I wrote some assembler back in my QuickBasic days.
Ideas ! Ideas ! That is what I need right now.
How about collaberations with some of my customers and what they are working on ?
Ideas !

Boss you JUST threw away $58!!! (I'm a DarkBasic refugee.)
You charge hundreds for a copy of your work yet are sweating Fantaisie Software $107 for the best basic compiler on the planet???
Get out of here! (a popular expression of shock not meant to be taklen literally)

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