FreeBASIC Looks Dead

spyke · Post by **spyke** » Jun 01, 2010 17:33

Without an official new version posted since 2008, I keep seeing on the Net how Free BASIC is dead. Even if it's just a bug fix release, a new version .20.2 or something like that would help the product not to look dead. Since there has been quite a few bug fixes since 2008, the maintainers should seriously consider doing this, unless they like the misconception that the project is dead.

agamemnus · Post by **agamemnus** » Jun 01, 2010 17:40

I agree; there really needs to be a new official release.

Even the SVN releases say .21 already.

agamemnus · Post by **agamemnus** » Jun 01, 2010 22:45

Lemme double-post and add that something like this (.21 official) doesn't just give prettiness. It also allows more people to know about the project and maybe in the future provides more devs.

Post by **dkl** » Jun 01, 2010 23:13

Yes, I totally agree. Everyone has been very busy, and packaging an release still is a lot of work. I hope I can help out a little bit now... There still are two months until 0.20's 2nd anniversary.

bfuller · Post by **bfuller** » Jun 02, 2010 1:07

Yes, I think cleaning up an SVN version, ensuring it is stable and releasing it would a good way to overcome the perception that development is stalled. But someone has to do it, and I think we all understand that resources are scarce. It would be nice to see a more recent post than Aug 11, 2008 in the first "News" forum though.

Galeon · Post by **Galeon** » Jun 02, 2010 2:27

Updating the headers will also help, since most of the libraries included with FreeBASIC have their newer versions.

agamemnus · Post by **agamemnus** » Jun 02, 2010 3:19

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.

creek23 · Post by **creek23** » Jun 02, 2010 3:55

Being a member of this community since 2007, I would also like to have a release -- I demand for one. :P

Anyway, if you guys release it 0.21 sooner this will the give extra development time for the C-emitter of FreeBASIC.

As for the headers/libraries, the community could contribute. Whatever each of the member of the community is working on.
Ex.

* some are tinkering with Irrlicht, they could help provide updated headers for that.
* some are tinkering with Gtk
* some are tinkering with Lua
* I myself is tinkering with Cairo

What's the purpose of FreeBASIC being open source if not for the community to be able collaborate with the dev. ;)

Galeon · Post by **Galeon** » Jun 02, 2010 4:16

The dev could find some people who could work in updating headers. Currently I working with GTK+ headers and its dependencies.

creek23 wrote:
* I myself is tinkering with Cairo

Do you have the latest Cairo headers for FreeBASIC?

creek23 · Post by **creek23** » Jun 02, 2010 4:36

Galeon wrote:The dev could find some people who could work in updating headers. Currently I working with GTK+ headers and its dependencies.

creek23 wrote:
* I myself is tinkering with Cairo

Do you have the latest Cairo headers for FreeBASIC?

Yes, of course. It's in my projects SVN repo: http://svn.konsolscript.org/viewvc/kons ... lib/cairo/

Galeon · Post by **Galeon** » Jun 02, 2010 4:40

creek23 wrote:
Galeon wrote:The dev could find some people who could work in updating headers. Currently I working with GTK+ headers and its dependencies.

creek23 wrote:
* I myself is tinkering with Cairo

Do you have the latest Cairo headers for FreeBASIC?
Yes, of course. It's in my projects SVN repo: http://svn.konsolscript.org/viewvc/kons ... lib/cairo/

Thanks, the same version that I need.

John Spikowski · Post by **John Spikowski** » Jun 02, 2010 9:27

I'm taking bets that N. Korea & S. Korea officially end the war between them before FreeBASIC releases 1.0. ;-)

roook_ph · Post by **roook_ph** » Jun 02, 2010 11:36

I dont know but I prefer to program on stagnated laanguage than to a bloated directionless compiler

vdecampo · Post by **vdecampo** » Jun 02, 2010 11:59

Every month or so I get an email from PowerBASIC touting their compilers and listing all the new features and command lists for PB9. I look it over just for the sake of edification and I say to myself..."Jeez it is so convoluted and in my opinion, unremarkable." What really makes FB so great, besides the compiler, is the community. If I have a problem with something, I can get an answer usually within a couple of hours, where some boards you could wait days! The language's strength is in its ability to make you productive. Having a new release version number does not increase my productivity. Having the bugs fixed does not really help me either since I can easily work around them. I would not complain about a new release and would rather be thankful FB has such a great community with really knowledgeable users. If FB was a dead project, it would not have such an active user base.

-Vince

Sebastian · Post by **Sebastian** » Jun 02, 2010 12:23

[OffTopicQuestion]
@vdecampo: Just out of interest: Are there any plans to reactivate iMakeGames.com? I've liked that project and visited the web site from time to time but now it's has been offline for several months. :-/
[/OffTopicQuestion]