FreeBASIC Looks Dead

General discussion for topics related to the FreeBASIC project or its community.
Post Reply
relsoft
Posts: 1767
Joined: May 27, 2005 10:34
Location: Philippines
Contact:

Post by relsoft »

v1ctor wrote: I wish i could help with the documentation, but i can't atm. Good luck with the effort.
Does it have something to do with the hot latina wrapping her arms around you on FB? I mean the social - type FB.

j/k

LOL
v1ctor
Site Admin
Posts: 3804
Joined: May 27, 2005 8:08
Location: SP / Bra[s]il
Contact:

Post by v1ctor »

That's just my sister, heh.

It also because i dislike to write documentation - or to document the source-code, as you everybody already noticed.
John Spikowski
Posts: 453
Joined: Dec 24, 2005 2:32
Location: WA - USA
Contact:

Post by John Spikowski »

Seems we are back to where we started. :-(

Honestly, does anyone really see this group pulling together this late in this game to document a Basic compiler that only one person fully understands?

I can't even find help with the ScriptBasic open source project that's written in ANSI C that runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. (32/64 OS's) & is well documented with a developers guide.

No one likes working for free unless there is a good reason to do so.
Last edited by John Spikowski on Jun 13, 2010 22:14, edited 1 time in total.
aurelVZAB
Posts: 666
Joined: Jul 02, 2008 14:55
Contact:

Post by aurelVZAB »

Dear John ...
This time i must confes that i really agree with your point ,but time is
hard ....bla bla ...
marcov
Posts: 3455
Joined: Jun 16, 2005 9:45
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Post by marcov »

John Spikowski wrote:
Honestly, does anyone really see this group pulling together this late in this game to document a Basic compiler that only one person fully understands?
I don't see intern Basic compiler documentation happening at all.
Or at least not at a level that it would enable people that can't do it now.

I once believed in this too, which is why I assisted making docs for FPC:

http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/comparch.pdf

the date of that document says enough.
----

Note that that doesn't mean it shouldn't not be tried at all(it can save new devels some work, and maybe it catches on, the FPC case is not ideal (since it has had a very static developer team)).

But I honestly don't think it will enable devels on a way they can't now. Compiler devels, specially open source ones, are more or less supposed to find their own answers.
Last edited by marcov on Jun 13, 2010 20:56, edited 2 times in total.
anonymous1337
Posts: 5494
Joined: Sep 12, 2005 20:06
Location: California

Post by anonymous1337 »

Open source means no one has to ask permission to pry around, not that prying around is something a lot of people want to do. We are all impatient. Hype is a natural desire.

*studies for finals*
*considers getting a job and own place*
*is finally able to decide how to devide personal time, assuming that he has his own place and relative financial stability*

- Reality.

"If you don't do it, nobody will."
Open source motto.
John Spikowski
Posts: 453
Joined: Dec 24, 2005 2:32
Location: WA - USA
Contact:

Post by John Spikowski »

"If you don't do it, nobody will."
Words to live by.
Sebastian
Posts: 131
Joined: Jun 18, 2005 14:01
Location: Europe / Germany
Contact:

Post by Sebastian »

marcov wrote:I once believed in this too, which is why I assisted making docs for FPC:
http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/comparch.pdf
Wow! You've done an amazing job!
marcov
Posts: 3455
Joined: Jun 16, 2005 9:45
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Post by marcov »

Sebastian wrote:
marcov wrote:I once believed in this too, which is why I assisted making docs for FPC:
http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/comparch.pdf
Wow! You've done an amazing job!
Carl did most of the work in 2000. I just did the reformatting of his word draft (and 3 years of updates), but even that took weeks. Unfortunately it is for the 1.0.x compiler, and it was never updated for the major 2.x reworks.

I'm no real compiler devel btw, I did the work mostly because more and more people started to do lowlevel RTL work, and this document documents the compilerprocs and how they need to be called (=the procedures in the RTL that the compiler "knows"), and other lowlevel whys.

Still there was a hope that more people would enter compiler development (including me). I never did.
segin
Posts: 126
Joined: Dec 27, 2005 5:22
Contact:

Post by segin »

agamemnus wrote:Well, there has been talk of all this, but it's apparent that it's too much work. Just "release" what we have, even if it isn't polished.
If you don't understand why that is a bad idea, you don't need to be programming.
roook_ph
Posts: 402
Joined: Apr 01, 2006 20:50
Location: philippines
Contact:

Post by roook_ph »

agamemnus wrote:
Well, there has been talk of all this, but it's apparent that it's too much work. Just "release" what we have, even if it isn't polished.


If you don't understand why that is a bad idea, you don't need to be programming.

Id rather program in an unpolished freeware open source compiler with thousand in forum than anything that is out there had to promise.
Well Ive tried a lot believe and I still didnt find any match to freebasic really
John Spikowski
Posts: 453
Joined: Dec 24, 2005 2:32
Location: WA - USA
Contact:

Post by John Spikowski »

FreeBASIC has been stable and mature for years. What's wrong with just calling it the Current Version and leave the revision numbering to the developers. Maybe in the PowerBASIC world where releases are far and few between does it matter. (new revenue stream)
TESLACOIL
Posts: 1769
Joined: Jun 20, 2010 16:04
Location: UK
Contact:

its alive and well

Post by TESLACOIL »

its alive and well

i just joined the community

--- you almost lost me as there was no PICTURE GUIDE to help me with the install & the -qbasic switch

i almost bailed several times to try another basic


after spending hours wading through http://basic.mindteq.com/index.php/
trying stuff out

i skipped this forums homepage more than once cos it looked uninviting and was obtuse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are losing member's...numbers fading etc then an advertising campaign in the right places, & a better "welcoming" homepage woudl go a long way

you cant beat a top quality video tutorial on you tube with a link to this forum...ive not seen any so far

my 2 cents

peeps have been very helpful & patient with me , big noob that i am and that counts for a lot


the freebasic universe looks very different when you are looking at it from the outside for the first time

its a big upgrade from qbasic (which is a simple self contained environment)

i stood back in awe "when by my own hand" as i saw 256 colours in 800x600 res for the first time (20mins ago)

like a blind man seeing his first rainbow :-D

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

with hardware , quality software availability is key to survival

with software , community & technical support is key to survival

freebasic has a lot of competition that all look the same from the outside
John Spikowski
Posts: 453
Joined: Dec 24, 2005 2:32
Location: WA - USA
Contact:

Post by John Spikowski »

Open source Basic has come a long way in recent years. I'm starting to see hard core PB'ers taking a serious look at what open source has to offer.

What sold me on open source is there are no restrictions with how far I want to drill down into the code to see how it works or change something to better fit my needs.

There is a lot of talent floating around these boards and if enough casual gurus make a concerted effort and bond with a project, it would be amazing the cool stuff we might have to play with.
segin
Posts: 126
Joined: Dec 27, 2005 5:22
Contact:

Re: its alive and well

Post by segin »

TESLACOIL wrote: --- you almost lost me as there was no PICTURE GUIDE to help me with the install & the -qbasic switch

you cant beat a top quality video tutorial on you tube with a link to this forum...ive not seen any so far
Sure, but then we'd only attract users that are in desperate need of having this guide thrown at them every five minutes: http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

This would simply be detrimental. New users are fine but at least some whose craniums aren't hollow.
Post Reply