PureBasic Forums - English

One of the most important parts of a frontpage would be a link to the forum, as this is where most aspiring buyers will quickly end up (at least it's what I do) to check how good the package is. Endless complaints are a good indication of loads of troubles

Now I can only say that this forum has been an incredible help, so I think it would be a serious incentive to buy AND USE PureBasic...

blueznl wrote:One of the most important parts of a frontpage would be a link to the forum, as this is where most aspiring buyers will quickly end up (at least it's what I do) to check how good the package is. Endless complaints are a good indication of loads of troubles

I offered it Fred 2 or 3 years ago...

History repeating ...

We have such threads about a website relaunch almost twice a year. A lot of people (me included) made several design concepts for a new website. The result was always the same like it will be here, NULL. You all have good intentions but this will unfortuneatly lead nowehere as long as Fred doesn't realize the serious need of a professional website as well as the introduction of basic marketing strategies.

Hi,

Here is the design requested. I run out of time and this is all I can deliver by now. Maybe I have a better idea in future?

As I don't know the style of the game, the desired background color etc., it will be best if you take a drawing program that you like and try to design your own creation. There are no rules for "developed using..." or "powered using..." graphics. Be creative...

@milan1612: I'm not able to render the gears with transparent PNG shaddow, as Cinema 4D is not able to do. Maybe you have some tools to make your own shaddows? The big image may be big enough to cut out the current shaddows...

@zxtunes: You can use my graphics here as you like. It is just a design study. By the way, the font I used is "haettenschweiler". Try google...

@Fluid Byte: This is sad, as it is very important for the future of PureBasic (IMHO).

Kukulkan

DoubleDutch wrote:

NDS and Windows Mobile

The 360 is PowerPC based. PS1/2/3 and PSP are all MIPS based (great CPU) and they are pretty closed as a platform for newbies.

You're right that the X-Box 360 is based on IBMs PPC (as is the old Nintendo console and the new WII) , but the PS3 is actually based on IBMs Cell Processor (not MIPs) which comes from the the same stable as the IBM PPC. IBMs PPC is the same family of CPU that was used in the old MAC before they moved to intel. IBM developed and manufacturers all the CPUs for all the major games consoles - same (PPC) CPUs are used in IBMs high end Unix Servers and Super Computers. The Cell Processor (PS3) is used in *Hyper* Super Computers as well.
Would be nice to see PB development across such diverse platforms, but I think the cost of getting a developers kit would be significant.

To get back on topic, though - I love the enhanced logos. Agree a more marketing oriented Web site would be a good thing. PB should be downloadable from C-Net etc to gain market penetration.

But - if PB became huge, then Fred & Freak would become managers not coders, a new development team and support team would be required.
PB today is a cottage industry, the PB team today (presumably) dont have the responsibility for employees, teams of lawyers and accountants.

The nature of PB would inevitably change....

but the PS3 is actually based on IBMs Cell Processor (not MIPs) which comes from the the same stable as the IBM PPC.

Oops! - your right. but there is a MIPS in some of them (old PS2 compat chip).

naw wrote:The nature of PB would inevitably change....

Please, don't.
Just, a bit more attractive website will be enough.

Never change a winning team.

Just a side note: to develop on console you need to use a licenced (very pricy) development kit, no matter what tool you want to use. It's not open as mainstream OS development, so don't expect PB running on PS3 anytime (what will be the benefit of it anyway, new games requiers a lot of man power and cost many millions of dollar per title, PB is just no-sens here). The phone-mobile target is more realistic but it's still a niche market and would requiers specialized development environment (with emulators and such). Nice website pic btw .

DoubleDutch wrote:

but the PS3 is actually based on IBMs Cell Processor (not MIPs) which comes from the the same stable as the IBM PPC.

Oops! - your right. but there is a MIPS in some of them (old PS2 compat chip).

Yes - I believe the older PS3s had a PS2 Compatability chip in them, but I'm told they were removed with later models to reduce costs.

xbox360 achieves compatability with the old xbox through SW emulation.

Freds comment that the dev kit is very expensive is quite right, infact, I doubt they would even want to sell him a dev kit.
If Sony sold a Dev Kit to Fred to develop a cheap SW development environment, then any kiddie can develop virus' for PS3 - also Sony dont sell so many Dev Kits.
Consoles are closed systems (and I think thats a good thing) I dont want to run an antivirus / firewall etc to protect it from malware.

Actually, the PS3 does have a hypervisor (like vmWare) and games run in a VM, for security and monitoring reasons. So I guess Sony/IBM thought of that one already.

but the PS3 is actually based on IBMs Cell Processor (not MIPs) which comes from the the same stable as the IBM PPC.

You can't just use the PB PPC unit to generate code for the Cell.
The power of the Cell processor lies in the parallel SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements), using them efficiently requires a lot of work from the compiler.
The normal PPC unit of the Cell by itself is not very spectacular.

Even then, it still requires the programmer to develop algorithms that make maximum use of them.
You cannot throw a simple serial program at a compiler and expect it to turn it into a parallel program that can utilize 8 parallel SPEs to a maximum.

So while the Cell architecture is very intresting, i doubt the average PB user would be able to utilize its full power.

Fred wrote:Nice website pic btw .

So what ?

Sorry to relaunch that idea, but no new website is going to be produced ?

not till after you've updated your sig!

I suggest Fred consider these options:

1. A free educational version (PureBasic lite?), free to schools to use, that is better than the current demo version.

2. Provide big discounts to schools to use full PureBasic.

This might help spread PureBasic through the education systems.