New version of PowerBasic?
Quote:
>I am using PB 3.5 to do programming for an embedded DOS controller. I
>would like to see the TCP/IP stuff added to it like in PB CC.
I think the one statement that has been made about any of their
upcoming products is that the next DOS version will definitely not
have the TCP/IP commands. The reason given, not enough demand for the
effort it will take.
Time for a rant....
I'm not a PB employee so what I'm saying is nothing more than my own
speculation but I gotta believe that there is more demand for a Linux
version of PB than for a DOS version. I don't believe that DOS is
entirely dead but it is now more of a niche market than Linux is. I
don't see myself upgrading to any new DOS compiler and I think that
the same is true of most of us. If there was an incredible demand for
DOS, it *would* be worth it for them to include the TCP stuff.
(BTW, I'd be curious to know why those of you who are still writing
DOS code are doing so. There might very well be solid reasons of which
I am totally unaware and I'm totally willing to admit that I've got my
head up my rear end in regard to this if that is, indeed, the case.)
At any rate, PB already has a DOS product to sell to anyone who wants
one and a very good product at that. That is not the case with Linux
and the longer it takes them to get a Linux product out the door, the
more time it gives their competitors to establish a foothold.
If, as someone mentioned, the Linux version was first spoken of
publically in 1997, they've had four years to come up with something.
I don't want a piece of garbage any more than I believe that PB wants
to produce one but it seems to me that since we haven't gotten
anything in that time period tells me that one of two things must be
true: (1) writing a Linux compiler is a heck of a lot more complicated
than they originally thought or (2) they are understaffed for the
project. From what I've seen of their products, their developers are
very talented programs which makes me think that it's more likely to
be #2 than #1.
Programming languages have a limited market. PB is never going to make
a sale to my mother. While PB could try to increase the percentage of
that limited market that uses their products, I would think that this
would be very difficult. These other developers are either using what
they're used to or what they're forced to. Neither barrier would be
easy to crack. The other option is to sell a new or improved product
to the same people who bought your previous products. Let's face it,
if you don't have money coming in and you're not the US government,
you can't spend money you don't have to hire programmers to work on
anything.
Now here's my problem. Right now we're using Windows on our PCs so
we're using PB/CC, PB/DLL and (yech!) Visual FoxPro. (We also have an
AS/400.) We're looking at the possibility of doing some stuff in Linux
around here. That means I'll have to write for the Linux platform
which means I need an programming tool that actually exists. I
desparately want that tool to be Power Basic because of my experience
with their products in the past and it would be nice to be able to
port at least some of my existing code (I'm assuming this will be
possible) without any major rewriting. If they're not there when I
need them, I'll have to go elsewhere and, once I go down that road,
there's no turning back.
The upshot is, and this is just my $0.02, PB should abandon, at least
temporarily, any work on a DOS upgrade and get a Linux version and
updates to the Windows products out the door.
Anything here that looks like an opinion is mine and not the company which vastly underpays me.