I may be emigrating.

General discussion for topics related to the FreeBASIC project or its community.
caseih
Posts: 2185
Joined: Feb 26, 2007 5:32

Re: I may be emigrating.

Post by caseih »

deltarho[1859] wrote: Jan 17, 2025 5:04So why didn't Drake knock out a 64-bit compiler. Perhaps he didn't have the time, or he bit off more than he could chew. :)
The answer is pretty simple, and Drake should have known about this before he bought it. PB was written in x86 assembler. There's no way to just release a 64-bit version of that, or an Arm version, or even a version for a different OS. You essentially have to start from scratch, which is what happened when PB started supporting Windows.

20 and 30 years ago, assembler enabled PB (and TB before it) to achieve lightning speeds. But now that decision doomed PB as it's just not portable. I pointed that out over 15 years ago on the PB forums, and Bob Zale, or someone else close to Bob, took that very personally and things got very unpleasant. No doubt about it, Bob was an expert and artisan when it came to assembly code.
deltarho[1859]
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Location: UK
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Re: I may be emigrating.

Post by deltarho[1859] »

@caseih

Ah, a PB'er of old.
Bob was an expert and artisan when it came to assembly code.
Indeed, he was, but he wasn't a good businessman. The upgrades had an enormous amount of new features, as you know, but he didn't charge enough for them and the gap between the upgrades was too long. More private work would have been good for his bank account and his health, but that would have taken him away from his 'baby' - PowerBASIC.
adeyblue
Posts: 344
Joined: Nov 07, 2019 20:08

Re: I may be emigrating.

Post by adeyblue »

It's kind of sad in a way. If you read the posts from about the time, all the noise was about 'we need to cement Bob's legacy', 'we need to do him proud' etc, and in the end his legacy got spaffed up the wall before his coffin could even get dirty.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150924080657/http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pbforums/showthread.php?t=59383 wrote: Watch for new products to be announced. Bob created them before his death and I WILL release them for his customers to be able to use the new features he created in them. They are 11 for windows and 7 Console Compiler. He also created 64 bit for both compilers.

It won't be the same without Bob, but I will do my best for PowerBASIC to live up to his standards.

I'm not sure which I will release first, 11 and 7 or the 64 bit compilers. If you and friends have an idea which should come first I would appreciate feed back.

Thanks,
Vivian C. Zale
I wonder if that was really true. Be interesting if one of the apparent testers ever leaked such things and the compilers are just sitting somewhere on one of the warez CDs on archive.org. OK, maybe not things originating in the 2010s but still.

Also wonder how much Drake actually paid for it in the end, can't have been more than single-digit thousands right? I mean after two years of messing around, half the customers having disappeared and moved on, god knows how many people having fingers in the code and all that. I expect there'd have been an element of resignation and just accepting anything in order to make it someone else's problem by the end too

If PB was just slightly more notable, I'm sure someone would've made a documentary or a book about its downfall. It'd probably be quite interesting if you could get inside perspectives. Like Drive to Survive on Netflix, except Zale to Fail.
dodicat
Posts: 8189
Joined: Jan 10, 2006 20:30
Location: Scotland

Re: I may be emigrating.

Post by dodicat »

The pb compiler was FREE for a while (5 minutes in CMT ~computing mean time)
I wonder what panic was in their breastie (Robert Burns To a Mouse " Wee Sleekit, Cowrin Tim'rous Beastie, O, What a Panic's in thy Breastie!.)
Translate:
Sleek, tiny, timorous, cowering beast, why's such panic in your breast?
--during that five minutes.
aurelVZAB
Posts: 679
Joined: Jul 02, 2008 14:55
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Re: I may be emigrating.

Post by aurelVZAB »

What is o2? Oxygen Basic? Quite nice, but what are the advantages over Freebasic?
Lotar

There is no BIG advantages
But from my experience syntax is little bit more friendly and easier than FB
it is smaller , whole compiler/assembler/linker in one .DLL
it is self-compiled , can work with C headers...etc...
caseih
Posts: 2185
Joined: Feb 26, 2007 5:32

Re: I may be emigrating.

Post by caseih »

The best thing about PB/DOS was the two manuals that shipped with it. I still wax nostalgic for those old manuals that detailed every keyword with examples.

One of the best things about FB is the wiki which is pretty good imo.
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