Re: Looking for BASIC compiler

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 14:54:37 GMT, Charles Appel wrote:

> "Phred" <ppnerkDELETETHIS@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:3n2ustF19ihebU2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> In article <430C3F30.93F156AE@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Lou@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>>H-Man wrote:
>>>I did not see any mention of PowerBasic. There are several flavors. Check
>>>their website.
>>
>> I've been wondering about this sort of thing lately too -- but I only
>> got as far as PDS 7.1 previously. 8-)
>>
>> So, has anyone here had sufficient experience with the latest VB
>> flavour (now .NET I guess?) compared with PowerBasic and Liberty
>> Basic, to offer an informed opinion on these products one versus the
>> others, please?
>>
>> Alternatively, does anyone know of a reliable review comparison of
>> these three which is available on the web? (Or in a still available
>> printed form.)
>
> I doubt if you will find a review comparing the various flavors of basic.
> If you want to know which one is best, it is largely a matter of opinion.
>
> VB-6 offers several advantages. It allows development using a RAD
> environment. Thus you don't spend a lot of time hand coding forms.
> It also generates reasonably fast code. And finally, there are a large
> number of books available for it.
>
> On the down side, it is no longer being sold and it comes with only a
> small number of native components. This means you'll have to
> distribute several DLLs with your program and this can lead to
> problems.
>
> VB-NET offers an environment that is similar to VB-6. Personally,
> I find the .NET WinForms designer to be a bit crude and I don't
> care for the fact that there is no support for native code. .NET code
> is slow - often very slow. In addition, VB.NET and VB-6 are two
> different languages. It is probably just as easy to convert a VB-6
> program to Delphi as to VB.NET. The sole advantage of VB.NET
> is that there are a large number of books available for it.
>
> REALbasic also offers a decent RAD environment once you get
> used to the peculiarities of the text editor. It does not have very
> many components with it, but can use Active-X controls. It does
> not have a reputation for producing fast code. There are only a
> few books available for it but there is a magazine devoted to it.
>
> PowerBasic does not offer a RAD environment. You must either
> hand code your forms or use a screen design tool. These tools
> create source code for the forms. This methodology is useable
> but adds a good bit of time to the process of building windows
> applications. It is inherently more error prone then the methods
> used by VB, REALbasic, or Delphi. PowerBasic does generate
> reasonably fast code, but VB-6 is often faster. I don't know of
> any books on PowerBasic other than the one published by the
> vendor. PowerBasic is generally similar to MS-QuickBasic.
>
> Liberty BASIC is similar to PowerBasic. As I recall, it uses a
> run-time interpreter rather than a native code compiler. The
> vendor publishes a monthly newsletter which you can download,
> but there has been only one book that covered it and it is a bit
> dated.
>
> Back in the days of DOS, I used Basic, C, Modula-2, and Pascal
> extensively. After checking out what was available for Windows, I
> settled on Borland Delphi. From time to time I check out the other
> choices, but so far it is the only system I've found that combines
> a rapid development environment with the ability to generate really
> fast code. (But, it is not BASIC.)

If Delphi were BASIC, it'd be perfect. Looks like I'll have to spend more
time learning Delphi. It's not that I don't like the language, it's just
working through the learning curve. Not too horrible though, at least it's
logical in it's verbage and structure. Not like some of the languages I've
given up on.

Thanks
--
HK
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Publishing (what would you pay for?)
    ... I don't register books typically, ... new version of Delphi. ... control which do lots of neat stuff, such as "true" ... hundreds of times, any spellchecker, dictionary, encyclopedia etc. needs ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: OT: Evolution (was: Archive search no longer working?)
    ... , on the Permian-Triassic extinction, and especially ... Jake Page (Helix Books, 1996). ... a divine being to believe in purpose, btw, as per Nietsche, Hegel, ... proposes and environment disposes". ...
    (rec.games.chess.misc)
  • Re: (OT) Hamas: Jews planned the Holocaust
    ... moaning that his cave sucks and that it't my fault. ... environment, but that did not make him right. ... Tell me the names of the last 3 history books you've read, ... involvement in the Middle East, ...
    (alt.autos.toyota)
  • Re: (OT) Hamas: Jews planned the Holocaust
    ... moaning that his cave sucks and that it't my fault. ... Al Capone was whatever he needed to be to function in his environment, ... Tell me the names of the last 3 history books you've read, ... involvement in the Middle East, ...
    (alt.autos.toyota)
  • Re: (OT) Hamas: Jews planned the Holocaust
    ... moaning that his cave sucks and that it't my fault. ... Al Capone was whatever he needed to be to function in his environment, ... Tell me the names of the last 3 history books you've read, ... involvement in the Middle East, ...
    (alt.autos.toyota)