New website

[dkl]

Hello everyone,

once again we have a new website, thanks to sir_mud. It may be changed/tweaked further in the future :)

What's the best FB code snippet to show off on the front page?

[badidea]

My initial reaction:

I thought for a moment that the site was hacked again. These big download buttons linking to sf.net looked dubious to me. I understand now that this is sourceforge.net, but in combination with the big "Compatible", "Powerful", "Expressive", "100% Free Software" makes it look a bit like some malware website.

There is also a lot of text now on the main page, but not really a "getting started" link or section. A good "getting started" can help reducing the frequent 'noob' questions on the forum. About IDE's and the like.

I may sound a bit negative, but I do appreciate the work done. Just some possible points for improvement in my opinion.

I do like the example code section. I that it is light-weight, not some HTML5 page with animations and stuff.

Edit, for fun a looked at some other programming language web-sites. I guess the freebasic homepage is not so bad after all:
https://www.javascript.com/ What is this? Get me out out here!
https://www.java.com/en/ Ugly!
http://www.freepascal.org/ A lot of platforms supported, but how does it look like, and how to start.
https://isocpp.org/ Too intimidating. probably not for me.
http://php.net/ Not so great either.
https://www.python.org/ A bit bloated, but several nice example codes on the main page.

[fxm]

The links to the main IDEs are missing.

[JohnK]

I like it-- fonts etc. My only issue is code line wrapping in the code boxes (Mobile viewing), but I have no idea how to fix that.

[VonGodric]

Congratz. I like the new site :)

Few minor things to consider:
- Remove double download button. 1 is enough. Feels tad cheap having "DOWNLOAD NOW!!!" twice.
- blocks of text feel tad cramped. add some padding to each and maybe increase line-height slightly.
- Having background for each title in the "Most important features" is perhaps tad excessive. Simply black text on white background would I think look more elegant.

Other than that good job! It's an excellent start. I like it clean and simple. Just needs few refinements :)

[VonGodric]

Also about code snippets on the home page - I wonder if we could add live code execution? Many compiler pages nowadays have this. I'm willing to help here so get in touch with me and we'll see what we can do. Would be awesome feature though!

Samples:
- D: http://dlang.org
- Kotlin: http://try.kotlinlang.org/#/Examples/He ... version.kt
- Go: https://golang.org

[VonGodric]

One more note - I don't know if it is already or not, but maybe make a public repo on github for the website so that people could check out and play around and send pull requests? Looking at it I hope it is not generated by CMS though ....

[coderJeff]

I think it looks great!

[D.J.Peters]

"FreeBASIC is a free/open source (GPL), BASIC compiler for Microsoft Windows, DOS and Linux."
I would change it in:
FreeBASIC is a free/open source (GPL), BASIC 32/64-bit compiler for x86/x86_64 DOS, Windows, Linux and many ARM devices.

Joshy

[MrSwiss]

FreeBASIC is a free/open source (GPL), BASIC 32/64-bit compiler for x86/x86_64 DOS, Windows, Linux and many ARM devices.

I'd also vote for that, with the exception of the (not-needed) technicalities (it is also a pleonasm), e.g.:

FreeBASIC is a free/open source (GPL), BASIC 32/64-bit Compiler for DOS, Windows, Linux and many ARM devices.

I'd also stress the fact: Compiler (not a Interpreter).

[St_W]

Over all I like the new website (although I did really like the previous one too). There are some issues, though:

- The text looks too much; so probably add spacing and maybe shorten it
- The text is outdated and things are repeated; e.g.:
"[..] currently supports building for i386-based architectures on the DOS, Linux, Windows and Xbox platforms [..]"
- The text mentions a lot of technical detail, which may confuse beginners
- The sample code does not show OO stuff
- I'd remove line numbers for the sample code
- The site is not mobile-friendly
- Missing links/information about development tools: Fbide, Fbedit, Fbdebugger
- Personally I do not really like the fonts; but that's just my personal taste

[fxm]

.....
- The sample code does not show OO stuff
.....

Neither the text.

[speedfixer]

Excellent.


No need to change title line: people EXPECT it to be 64 bit if looking for a modern language.
A new user does not have to live through the transition period as we have.



Shrink the 'Powerful' 'Compatible' etc a bit with the check marks.
We want people to use FB, but we aren't trying to sell anything.


Two 'Download Now' = too aggressive

Remove line numbers from example to stress NOT AN INTERPRETER.

Perhaps two examples:

'Hello World' and something more complex. Show both simplicity and complexity.

Stats on size of exe in which OS, and perhaps some more stats on performance. Claims are interesting promises, but we have too many politicians making empty claims already.
When someone is shopping for a new language, he would like a hint more than a claim that he is getting what he desires.

Otherwise, excellent.


Personally, I would not ever have 'Microsoft' more than one time, ever, on any page I would write. They haven't done anyone any favors. My feeling.


David

[MrSwiss]

A try at the above mentioned "more complex" Example:

Code: Select all

#Lang "FB"							' default: FreeBASIC Dialect (PreProcessor Directive)
' Declaration: of our own Printing Routine ...
Declare Sub ColrPrtPos(	ByVal As Long, _			' Row Position
						ByVal As Long, _			' Column Pos.
						ByVal As String, _			' String to be printed
						ByVal As ULong=&hFF000000, _' foreground Color (default = black)
						ByVal As ULong=&hFFFFFFFF )	' background Color (default = white)

' ===== Main Code ===== '			' just for better readability (not really needed)
Width 80, 25						' Standard Console Size
Color 0, 15 : Cls					' black on white (is set by Cls)

Dim As String tst = "1234567890", empty = Space(30)		' init. used String(s)

For j As Long = 1 To 25				' default Step = 1
	For i As Long = 5 To 65 Step 15	' custom Step (positive/negative, Int, Float possible)
		Var c = j Mod 15			' exclude: c = 15 (white = background Color)
		ColrPrtPos(j, i, tst, c, 15)' use of Print Routine (using Loop Variables for Pos.)
	Next							' Next i = optional
Next								' Next j = optional

ColrPrtPos(12, 25, empty, 12, 0)	' Print Routine (with 'empty' String Var. = 30 Spaces)
ColrPrtPos(13, 25, " Any keypress quit's Program! ", 12, 0)	' dito, with 'literal' String
ColrPrtPos(14, 25, empty, 12, 0)

Sleep : Color 7, 0 : Cls			' wait for user Action; reset to original Colors; quit
' ===== End Main ===== '

' Implementation: of our own Printing Routine (works in Console- and Graphics-Mode)
Sub ColrPrtPos(	ByVal row As Long, _				' 32bit Int Type
				ByVal col As Long, _				' 32bit Int Type
				ByVal Stg As String, _				' variable Length String Type (ASCII)
				ByVal CFG As ULong = &hFF000000, _	' 32bit unsigned Int Type
				ByVal CBG As ULong = &hFFFFFFFF )	' 32bit ARGB Color Value (in HEX)
	If CFG <> &hFF000000 OrElse CBG <> &hFFFFFFFF Then Color(CFG, CBG)	' set Color
	ScreenLock										' prevent Screen flickering (graphics Mode)
	Locate row, col : Print Stg;					' positioning/printing, NO LF invoked!
	ScreenUnLock									' free Screen Lock again
End Sub
' ----- End of File ----- '

The Code formating, as it stands now is really annoying ...
The above Code, with TAB Size 4, is completely torn appart.

[St_W]

Stats on size of exe in which OS, and perhaps some more stats on performance.

Nobody (no new user searching for a language) cares about executable size. FB does not generate executables for embedded devices or other platforms with limited resources. Executable size is irrelevant on any of the platforms supported by FB.
Performance is important of course, but I think it would be hard to present any *meaningful* stats.

No need to change title line: people EXPECT it to be 64 bit if looking for a modern language.
A new user does not have to live through the transition period as we have.

I agree that 32/64-bit availability doesn't need to be mentioned explicitly as new users expect that.
Similar to that I wouldn't mention the origin in QuickBasic and the compatibility mode *before* even mentioning the FreeBasic language. I would mention QB compatibility only as a point in a feature presentation.

@MrSwiss: just use spaces instead of tabs for indentation :-P
Btw: Good code / language syntax doesn't need comments like in your example; that's certainly too much.