Loss of momentum?

[RichAlgeni]

Has anyone else notice what seems to be a loss of momentum in regards to development and bug fixes?

I don't wish to start any unfounded rumors with this thread, however it seems like the pace of development and fixes has slowed. Just a cursory look at bugs shows that there have not been many [Done] labels added since early February.

I'm hopeful that a status update can relieve any concerns that I and others may be experiencing right now.

[juror]

On the other hand
There has been progress on SpiderBasic

[kenmo]

The team is usually quietest when they are getting the most work done! Don't worry.

[Dude]

Has anyone else notice what seems to be a loss of momentum in regards to development and bug fixes?

We discussed this two months ago: http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... 17&t=61740

In that thread, Fred confirmed PureBasic is still in development. People need to chill out more. PureBasic has more regular updates than any other programming language out there!

[RichAlgeni]

I debated adding this, but Dude's comment makes it relevant.

The real reason I asked is that I made a donation, but didn't get a response.

Previously, when I have done so, I received a response within hours.

[Steve Elliott2]

PureBasic has more regular updates than any other programming language out there!

As somebody who has been to other languages, I would say that is correct. Keep up the good work Fred!

[davido]

The team is usually quietest when they are getting the most work done! Don't worry.

I've noticed that, too.

[Justin]

They are probably more busy with spiderbasic than purebasic.

[HanPBF]

As the team not only doesn't give a status of there work but also not of a roadmap, using PB in a business environment is "not so good"; to mention this carefully...

I am really curious how they will close the gap between browser and desktop or even browser and web server.
At the moment, they are building a PB to JavaScript compiler which is in my opinion and from what I know now without any sense. There is Typescript and some other variations of CoffeeScript, etc. at altjs (s. Google) which do exactly this.
And JavaScript is the lingua franca in web with a huge amount of frameworks around (e. g. SmartClient).
Who can work in PB can do JS; they are both not easy to handle.

But, here comes the even worse matter: even PB team does not show what they currently working on, they will probably and hopefully do a better job than Microsoft.

For all those criticising the PB teams behaviour: when You develop with MS (especially ASP.NET), You maybe work with todays architecture and at the same time You are told that "with the next version everything gets better...". That's also annoying!
With ASP.NET, WinForms, WPF, etc. You can see a really mess of technologies.

There are over 15000 people having done a subscription to Microsoft for put to live again VB6.
And MS says no; at the same time keeping VBA in their Office products as it was 15y ago.

When PB team does work intensive on SpiderBasic as Julian speculated, and under this work PB gets into the background that would be really, really bad; but I think there was an entry in the forum that this is not the case.

What I don't understand is that the team wants to be a big player in the web world, but lacks development (probably) for simple things like ORACLE or SQL Server PB-native data access or a complete GUI framework (I mean, they know what You can do with HTML/JS/CSS).
But: I just did test the ADOmate access to SQL Server and it works, like works OCI.dll and CanvasGadget does allow a GUI You like...

So, what I would like to see is further development of the language itself:
- named arguments, rest parameters, multiple dispatch for procedures (not OOP!), etc.
- structures in structures as a nested statement
- better literal init of arrays

But what I really expect for the next version is a big surprise and a huge step forward.

When the next news from PB team is "Hurray, we have version 1.1 of SpiderBasic" I will definitely leave.
And even having given "my roadmap", I am able to change my opinion tomorrow...

Best luck, keep calm, hope the best and expect nothing;-)

[TI-994A]

Who can work in PB can do JS; they are both not easy to handle.

Presumably, the initial target for SpiderBasic would be current PureBasic users who are comfortable with its syntax, but not with JavaScript.

[Kukulkan]

I have to agree with HanPBF. Sooner or later most people will realize that SpiderBasic is somehow limited and it is faster, more easy, less dependencies etc (choose what you prefer) to work in JavaScript directly. Therefore, I think it is a quite cool thing but commercially spoken it will stay a niche whereas PB still is very powerful because of its Cross-Platform architecture and great speed and API compatibility.
​
I agree in so far, that PB development should be focussed more. But I also have to say that, in case it was really urgent, Fred did a quick response in the past. So, I also hope that the next version is near and a lot of things got enhanced (http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... =3&t=60506).

I think they will continue PB development but maybe they simply needed some time to do something else to free their minds a little. And if this happened, they will return to PB stuff - fully motivated

Kukulkan

[Karellen]

But what I really expect for the next version is a big surprise and a huge step forward.

When the next news from PB team is "Hurray, we have version 1.1 of SpiderBasic" I will definitely leave.

Same here. Though I like the latest development of PureBasic (talking about the LTS Version and so on) SpiderBasic couldn't catch me. The concept is not bad, but it's not even half way there. There are so many things to do until one can seriously consider it for web development - will take years.
Meanwhile PB development is slowed down, because each hour for SB is one hour less for PB. Since there are no additional developers that's a simple fact. I wonder how things will continue and I join in asking the developers for a statement.

[skywalk]

Better to consider SpiderBasic an extension of PureBasic(nearly same syntax/IDE/etc.) and so development is continuing. Just as you see [DONE] for Mac bugs when you wait for Windows release.

[Steve Elliott2]

Yes I can't see the appeal of Spider BASIC either. There are other solutions out there already.

In Pure BASIC however, you can produce GUI applications across 3 very popular Operating systems very easily. Also it has everything needed to write 2D or 3D games.

In my opinion this should be built on and marketed. I would recommend a pay for major upgrade policy, rather than trying to sell another BASIC language, at the expense of Pure BASIC development time.

[the.weavster]

Have you guys actually tried creating a desktop style UI in JavaScript?

There are lots of frameworks but the only one close to having a nice API (imo) is Qooxdoo, with all the others it's like poking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick. I can't tell you how pleased I am with SpiderBasic, once Fred gets the inline JavaScript function name issue resolved SpiderBasic will be very useful. When we get to the point of having 1 minified JS file as the compiler output I'll be properly happy.

The concept is not bad, but it's not even half way there. There are so many things to do until one can seriously consider it for web development - will take years.

Why do you think that? Once you have an elegant way to create a nice UI and you can send ajax requests to a server you're away.

Hopefully the next version of PureBasic will give us a way of creating FastCGI applications so we can use SB client side and PB server side.