FreeBASIC mentioned on Dr. Dobbs (by Apple developer)

[AGS]

FreeBASIC is mentioned in an article on Dr. Dobbs. The article can be found here (direct link to article)

For those unfamiliar with Dr. Dobbs: it's a website on things that have to do with software development.
It started out as a magazine but the paper version of Dr. Dobbs is no more.
You can find all sorts of things on Dr. Dobbs ranging from source code to interviews with
people mentioning FreeBASIC :)

And to get back to that article on Dr. Dobbs: it was an article on the architecture of LLVM
(as in The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure Project) written by Chris Lattner
(he is the primary author of the LLVM infrastructure). In the article Mr. Lattner mentions
FreeBASIC a couple of times.

I figured getting mentioned by an Apple tech guy (Mr. Lattner works for Apple as Director of
Low Level Tools and chief architect of their Compiler Group) was worth mentioning on this forum.

It's nice to see someone from the software industry taking notice of the FreeBASIC compiler.

LLVM can be found at http://www.llvm.org

[anonymous1337]

That is indeed very cool and a bit ironic considering FreeBASIC doesn't have a Mac port.

Feels good to be a noteworthy project. Maybe all users need to do is come up with some interesting technology and next thing you know, we'd get mentioned in articles that more people read.

The fact that he knows so much about all of these different compilers is very impressive. Guy's serious.

[roook_ph]

There is an online version of DR. Dobbs . I used to download source codes from that magazine way back 1990's.

[TESLACOIL]

of course if you really wanted to get noticed there are countless things that could be done in the REAL WORLD

like

speak to the Ubuntu & Mint guys and get them to include FreeBASIC as part of their OS....windows used to come bundled with basic REMEMBER

email the top 10 computer magazines and ask that freebasic be included on their cover disk....editors are lazy so if some did a write up and sent it in the mag would publish it

contact one of the large computer chain retailers and strike up a deal to hand out free cds or dongle based installs of freebasic...they are always after freebies and may even cover the costs of a CD run

i could list no end of great ideas and opportunities that have been missed over the years, there's some kind of myopic group think effect going on


yawns unceremoniously @ the apathy of the community towards promoting freebasic in any MEANINGFUL manner

..... in a word pitiful !



there are 1001 geekioid projects out there, most of them of little interest except to those in search of nerdgasms and yet there are a few, and freebasic is one of them that do actually have some value to mankind...you lot are just far to nerdy to see it

[anonymous1337]

QUITE.

[TESLACOIL]

awesome = talent + teamwork

This is an equation which seems to escape most peoples attention here and thus like the horse in the picture they sit around talking about it but producing little.

Talent + teamwork is what is missing, the developers have got their heads down and are chipping away, for FreeBASIC to reach its full potential additional talented individuals need to put their heads together and get down to the nitty gritty of producing 'useful stuff'

some stuff is being done BUT a heck of lot just isn't...hence my rant

KEY is this, solo efforts can only get you so far, to get bigger or more important stuff done requires that people work in teams.
.
.
.
@ anonymous1337 , for a talented guy, quite frankly at times your attitude sucks. People like yourself should be encouraging & leading more team projects...hence my rant

[anonymous1337]

TESLACOIL, I actually write code before trying to rally people.

It's called putting your money where your mouth is.

You're a fine example of a pot calling the kettle black.

[TESLACOIL]

Dont get me wrong, I respect your skills and much of what you do

Talent + Leadership can get great stuff done, especially the bigger and better stuff done

Get the right talent behind the right project and wow !...we are just missing a bit of wow




Right now there is a lack of community numbers and diversity. Too much of the ' individual k'loc's mantra' will not encourage that diversity...we need to encourage Artists, Designers & Specialists, for its they that will make up the bulk of community projects,coding just 1 aspect of any successful piece of software.

[anonymous1337]

I disagree. Most of what FreeBASIC lacks, and the reason it attracts such a small subset of developers, has to do with how lacking it is as a software development environment.

Artists, designers, producers, project managers, etc. - just want to see their vision become a reality. They hardly care for the tool used to make that happen.

Improve the capacity for FreeBASIC users to be productive and you'll see more people flocking to it.

Which is why, as I have said repeatedly, we need someone who's actually going to write code, not someone who's going to try and sell an undesirable product to otherwise highly productive professionals.

[TESLACOIL]

ref Improve the capacity for FreeBASIC users to be productive and you'll see more people flocking to it.

thats the key line


It is also true that 'useful software' which could be built right now with FreeBASIC isn't getting done.To clarify. my focus is twofold, additional tools and useful enduser software

Current lack of enduser software demonstrating what FreeBASIC is capable of now. We are currently lacking team projects of this kind.





also relevant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Code-Breakers


It's not that FOSS has had a bad press, it has had no press because there is no company that 'owns' it. But we found that in the computer industry and among the aficionados, it is well known and its virtues well understood.

—Robert Lamb, executive producer



to which ill add, It just needs a push in the right direction

[marcov]

Back ontopic, the article, some critiques:

- it names freebasic for being retargetable. Is that due to the "C" port?
- it says the collections optimize better because they are the backed for multiple fronts. IMHO the wrong way around. Because certain compilers got good enough (made the cut), they got multiple frontends, not the other way around.

[anonymous1337]

Didn't it name FreeBASIC as retargetable for different processors? It is - 286, 386, 486. It acquired SSE support a while back, also.

Not the same as different architectures, but processors, sure.

[marcov]

Didn't it name FreeBASIC as retargetable for different processors? It is - 286, 386, 486. It acquired SSE support a while back, also.

It said that yes. But since that goes for nearly any compiler, I think architectures was meant. It was also very strange that FPC wasn't named in that list (while it supports all major architectures, even in different revisions and ABIs,)

However an architecture in the compiler target sense is not super exactly defied though. There are the obvious ones (where the
processor is totally different like MIPS,ARM,PowerPC), but the problem of definition is within a processor series.

A minor addition to a series processors can force an architecture change, while a very significant addition of hundreds of instructions does not. Simply because the minor change changes the ABI forcing existing apps to be recompiled to the new ABI.

Pop quiz: how many architectures does a modern x86 (one that supports 64-bit) support? (hint: I counted 5)

[AGS]

Back ontopic, the article, some critiques:

- it names freebasic for being retargetable. Is that due to the "C" port?
- it says the collections optimize better because they are the backed for multiple fronts. IMHO the wrong way around. Because certain compilers got good enough (made the cut), they got multiple frontends, not the other way around.

I don't think retargetable has to do with the "C" port. I think it has to do with the fact that
-- the fbc is designed in a way that resembles picture 2 (see article)
-- the fbc was designed according to a three-phase design.

Freebasic is split into one front end and several back ends.

As far as assembler-like back ends go the fbc has one working
asm back end (x86) and one work-in-progress LLVM back end (LLVM IR).

Each of these back ends implements the same interface (defined as a set of function
pointers packed together into a 'vtable'). If you'd want to add an ARM back end you'd
have to implement that same interface for an ARM CPU.

The FB compiler is retargettable 'by design'.

[roook_ph]

I still wont give freebasic credits that is not due for it. There are compilers out there that is better or more persuading to program with . But freebasic is unique it is improving despite being free and that is why it is mentioned everywhere . Maybe someday they would stop by asking fees for it. THen TESLACOIL wont be around asking for people to help him with his design and code problems.