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PureBasic for Blitz programmer
Posted: Mon May 19, 2003 10:31 pm
by robleong
Can someone who has experience using both PureBasic and Blitz honestly tell me what you find useful in PureBasic, and how difficult the transition would be from Blitz?
I have been using Blitz3D to program games for a few months now, but am now thinking of writing a Windows utility program. I do not think it is prudent to pay the full price to buy Blitz+ when I can pay a similar price to purchase a totally different program such as PureBasic, provided that PureBasic is easy to learn and does what I want it to do - I'm not thinking of using PureBasic for games, by the way. I'm also keen on the assembler bit (as I've used BBC Basic before) and the small executables that PureBasic allows for. Thanks!
Posted: Mon May 19, 2003 11:02 pm
by dmoc
Hi there! I'm also coming from BB3D. PB is well worth your money and time. Be prepared for a bit of frustration and a bit of experimenting. Forums member are particularly helpful... and so is Fred if you keep in his good books
To give you an idea of how far you can go, even without OGRE, part of my current project has a file named "bb3demu.pb". I'll leave you to guess what it is
(and before you ask: no, sorry, it's private sw)
Edit: I don't want to give the wrong impression: what I'm working on is obviously not as fully featured as BB itself (re 3D aspects) but so far there's no reason that it couldn't with enough time and effort. My work is also based on OpenGL and eventually (
) targeted at Linux.
Posted: Mon May 19, 2003 11:09 pm
by robleong
Thanks Dmoc. Glad to know that I'm not unique in my thinking! Any other opinions and advice, anyone?
Posted: Mon May 19, 2003 11:19 pm
by Fred
Well, if I say my opinion, it will be not fair
.
Posted: Mon May 19, 2003 11:28 pm
by robleong
Fred, but it's your opinion that I probably want to hear most! Or you could email me directly instead?!
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 12:16 am
by Henrik
Hi robleong
I have BB3D v183.
I don't own B+ but i have tried the demo though.
similarity syntax wise, is so close that you will probably mix them up in the beginning.
The rest you probably know Purebasic = pointer, dll, inlineasm, smale size and stuf.
Bedst Regards
Henrik.
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 12:21 am
by robleong
Sounds good, Henrik - thanks.
Good...
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 10:56 am
by Hi-Toro
Well, if I say my opinion, it will be not fair
Me, too Fred...
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 1:31 pm
by Fred
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 3:12 pm
by Inner
It's a shake and bake!
Personally, the only reason I use (PB) is because Blitz is not developed enough for my liking on the WindowsAPI side yet, infact my only problem with B+ is file size, no dll's, and it's still young.
PB is easy enough to learn, but has idiosyncrasys that require a learning curve, I still don't believe personally that 3D stuff in PB is quite up to scratch with Blitz, (personally?, I deleted the DLL for it, please don't take offence, which says more about PB really, considering if you don't want something you can throw it away ), my opinuion is;
"I'd rather have Blitz to code WinAPI, but it isn't quite powerful enough to do that yet, so PB is the next best thing."
/me ducks for flamages.
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 4:23 pm
by Fred
No offense, but you can't do anything serious with B+ for now
. On the other side, B3D is the best one for now on the 3D games side, without any doubts.
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 4:38 pm
by Henrik
Inner "remember i'am smiling"
But
Are we getting emotional here
robleong was talking about diffidence between B+ and PB
He was seems satisfy with Blitz3D though.
Annnd Yeees what a learning curve
Code: Select all
;Blitz Plus.
;------------
Global Win1
Global Panel1
Global HTML1
Global PBAR1
; ----Function Begins----
Function CreateWin1()
Win1 = CreateWindow("Window1",50,150,677,564,Desktop(),31)
Panel1 = CreatePanel(12,28,639,438,Win1,1)
SetGadgetLayout Panel1,1,1,1,1
HTML1 = CreateHtmlView(5,5,625,412,Panel1,0)
SetGadgetLayout HTML1,1,0,1,0
PBAR1 = CreateProgBar(11,478,639,16,Win1,1)
SetGadgetLayout PBAR1,1,0,1,0
End Function
CreateWin1()
While WaitEvent()<>$803
; Do Something
Wend
Code: Select all
;PureBasic.
;------------
#Win1 = 0
#Frame1 = 0
#HTML1 = 1
#PBAR1 =0
; ----Procedure Begins----
Procedure CreateWin1()
If OpenWindow(#Win1, 287, 90, 677, 554, #PB_Window_SystemMenu , "Window1")
If CreateStatusBar(#PBAR1, WindowID()) : EndIf
If CreateGadgetList(WindowID())
Frame3DGadget(#Frame1, 5, 5, 670, 495, "", #PB_Frame3D_Double)
WebGadget(#HTML1, 15, 15, 655, 455, "about:blank")
ProgressBarGadget(#PBAR1, 5, 510, 665, 20, 0, 10)
EndIf
EndIf
EndProcedure
CreateWin1()
While WaitWindowEvent() <> #PB_EventCloseWindow
; Do Something
Wend
So ..
If we are getting emotional, then when he have bought B+ and BlitzMax comes out he can buy that and throw B+ out.
Like first you buy BB then you by Blitz3D and throw BB out.
And now you buy B+ and when BlitzMax comes you buy that one, and
throw both B+ and Blitz3D out.
Is that emotional enough for you
Regards
Henrik.
Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 5:30 pm
by robleong
Thanks guys for the opinions. And thanks a lot, Henrik, for the demo code - I'll be taking a closer look at that. I also appreciate the honest opinion of Inner. Yes, I'm more than happy with Blitz3D when I'm writing games, so I'm not looking to replace that for games.
I'm now looking to write a Windows utility program, which is why I'm leaning towards PureBasic, rather than Blitz+. However, truthfully, had they decided to sell Blitz+ at a substantial discount for someone like me who already has Blitz3D, I would more likely have considered Blitz+! Having said that, I like the option of an inline assembler as I've used that often enough when I had my BBC micro 20 years ago, and it came in useful. I understand IBasic might have that soon too. And the small exe size that PureBasic is capable of producing is a big draw for me too.
Regards,
Robert.
Re: PureBasic for Blitz programmer
Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 1:39 am
by PB
> Can someone who has experience using both PureBasic and Blitz
> honestly tell me what you find useful in PureBasic, and how difficult the
> transition would be from Blitz?
If you've used any other Basic fluently, then the transition will be fairly
smooth. Most gripes that I've seen here are from those who haven't
programmed much in Basic before (IMO).
Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 7:12 am
by robleong
Yes, PB, I've used many versions of Basic, so glad to hear that it shouldn't be a problem. However, I've not done any Windows programming, so I might have difficulty using all the weird calls (not unique to PureBasic)!
