I've been continually disappointed by the speed, size and runtime requirements of all the languages over the years. I mean to write a "hello world" app in VB still requires a 2-3 meg. runtime? What the?
And don't even let me get started on .Net!
It's like that commercial I saw where a model-like lady is standing on the curb and up pulls a Ferrari like car and the guy driving is checking her out and smiles and she smiles back and so he decides to press the gas to rev up the car and impress her, so he floors it and it goes VROOM! and then you see the gas gauge drop from Full to 1/2 Full and he revs it again and it drops to Empty and starts to sputter and the lady makes a face like

That's .Net all looks and sexy but when you have to pay up it sucks!
I have always wanted something that had the power of C++ and the size of the exe and the speed as well. But I've never been able to crack the nut! It's a tough one. I've probably attempted to climb that hill at least 3 times and just can't do it.
I've wanted that ability because the kinds of projects I've wanted to work on required more power than VB.
To me PureBasic gives me the best of both worlds. It's got the power of C++, the size and the speed as well as the ease of a Basic like language.
In addition, it's doing something amazing. It's teaching me the inner workings of the OS! In order to do the kinds of things I want in my PB programs I'm needing to tap into the API and with the help of many here on the board I've learned more since I purchased PB than in any previous year!
Then there's the pricing and license. My God, could it be any better? Inexpensive for independent programmers like myself and the license covers all future releases and all platforms. Duh!?
I can sum up why PB not only doesn't suck, but totally blows me away with a simple realization I had a while back while working on my PB projects: "I haven't had this much fun programming or been this excited about the possibilites available to me now in my entire programming life".
Nuff said.