freebasic and powerbasic, which better?

Jerry Fielden · Post by **Jerry Fielden** » Jul 10, 2009 14:05

Hello Garvan

I just threw that in there, I didn't really believe it. There were so many making comments about software they don't have. I think MS could have bought it to write DLLs with. But I really don't know.

Comments aimed at, big corps don't buy Powerbasic was untrue and I thought it deserved better than that.

My comment "Don't be suprised" doesn't mean that I actually believe it. It was just my way of being mischievous.

Later.......Jerry

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Jul 10, 2009 21:20

What is meant by “best”? If PB turns out to be so much “better” then could it mean that FB should be abandoned and the 4100+ forum members may have to find or buy another BASIC? Or might it be that the “better” facilities users have been praising in PB could be incorporated into FB?

So far this thread has identified those features to be;
1.PB has been evaluated by at least one user in several named corporations.
2.PB has a price tag, therefore it must be better.

I want to know what I am missing out on, what are the technical features of PB that makes it clearly so much better than FB, please be specific?

TheMG · Post by **TheMG** » Jul 10, 2009 22:06

A very good article by a guy I know, perfect for this discussion (of course, it will be unheeded).

http://welbog.homeip.net/glue/17/

jcfuller · Post by **jcfuller** » Jul 10, 2009 22:19

Richard wrote: I want to know what I am missing out on, what are the technical features of PB that makes it clearly so much better than FB, please be specific?

Well if you had read all the posts you would have seen this:

http://www.powerbasic.com/support/help/pbwin/index.htm

I'll leave it up to you to decide for yourself.

James

McLovin · Post by **McLovin** » Jul 11, 2009 0:20

I use PowerBASIC every day. The best part is the very strong string handling functions and the rock solid knowledge knowing that what is documented is what will happen. There is no second guessing thinking that maybe there is a bug lurking underneath. There have been very, very, very few bugs unearthed in PB once the compiler ships.

FB is wicked excellent as well. It is too bad that V1ctor and Cha0s moved on. The pace of development really stalled since then. I feel for Counting Pine because it seems like he is the one remaining to carry the torch.

I do like FB's versatility. You can DIM variables a million different ways, you can very easily access multitudes of 3rd party libraries, and some of the pointer handling is better. I like the fact that GCC is used on the backend but it will be even cooler once the C backend is completed and hopefully that may allow for many more lower level code optimizations.

I love both BASIC's - they help me get the job done. I find that FB is more C/C++ style oriented, but that is cool especially when trying to convert C code.

KristopherWindsor · Post by **KristopherWindsor** » Jul 11, 2009 4:34

TheMG wrote:A very good article by a guy I know, perfect for this discussion (of course, it will be unheeded).

http://welbog.homeip.net/glue/17/

Yeah, I've found that recently, I no longer have a favorite language.
Freedom!!! =)

cha0s · Post by **cha0s** » Jul 12, 2009 3:07

I got VMs set up for 32-bit Linux and Windows now, so I should be contributing more than I have been recently (nothing ;))

If any of you guys feel like FreeBASIC is inferior, try to compile a list in one place that can be referenced. I'd be interested to read it and see what I could do regarding what people want... I might do it eventually from this post, but it's always nice to get someone else to do it instead. >:P

KaraK · Post by **KaraK** » Jul 12, 2009 11:35

jcfuller wrote: I have yet to find just one FreeBasic programmer making a living using Fb.

I do

EDIT : ok , ill be more specific. I write software for online games: plugin dlls (the use of inline assembly its pretty useful), file encoders/decoders , proxys, and i also writed an anticheat system recently.

programist · Post by **programist** » Aug 02, 2009 19:39

Ben programlamaya Quick Basicle başladım; daha sonra Windows programlama için Visual Basic öğrendim. Fakat bu Free Basici çözemedim. Yavaş olmasına rağmen AutoIt bana daha kolay geliyor çünkü AutoItte yazılan kodlar Visual Basice oldukça yakın ve basit bir işlem için uzun uzadıya kod yazmıyorsunuz. Free Basic ise anladığım kadarıyla C'den çok şey almış ve bazı konularda döküman eksikliği var.

joseywales72 · Post by **joseywales72** » Aug 03, 2009 5:26

Ben programlamaya Quick Basicle başladım; daha sonra Windows programlama için Visual Basic öğrendim. Fakat bu Free Basici çözemedim. Yavaş olmasına rağmen AutoIt bana daha kolay geliyor çünkü AutoItte yazılan kodlar Visual Basice oldukça yakın ve basit bir işlem için uzun uzadıya kod yazmıyorsunuz. Free Basic ise anladığım kadarıyla C'den çok şey almış ve bazı konularda döküman eksikliği var.

Please use English. Although there are many different people from around the world, this forum's language is English. As you can see, my English is not perfect as I am not a native speaker. And now the translation of this to Turkish as it is my native language too.

Lütfen İngilizce kullanın. Forumda dünyanın her tarafından insanlar olmasına karşın forum dili İngilizcedir. Gördüğünüz gibi benim de İngilizcem mükemmel değil çünkü benim de anadilim İngilizce değil. Forumun ana amacı kendini ifade etmek, ifade edebilmek anlaşılmaktan geçer. Burada herkes bir dereceye kadar İngilizce anlıyor. İngilizcenize ne kadar güvenmeseniz de derdinizi anlatmaya çalışın, sağduyu ve terbiye sınırları içinde kalındığı müddetçe herkes elinden geldiğince yardım etmeye çalışacaktır.

rdc · Post by **rdc** » Aug 03, 2009 21:59

TheMG wrote:A very good article by a guy I know, perfect for this discussion (of course, it will be unheeded).

http://welbog.homeip.net/glue/17/

My thoughts exactly. Why box yourself in with one language? I have used/use a plethora of languages and each has its strengths and weaknesses. There is no such thing as a perfect language. The notion is absurd because the definition of a perfect language involves contradictions.

I for one like the fact that there are so many options today. I remember I was so excited to write a micro-controller program written in machine language using a hex pad. That was state of the art since the program ran immediately and I didn't have to wait a day for my batch to process. Today there are so many options and yet folks still like their little boxes.

aurelVZAB · Post by **aurelVZAB** » Aug 22, 2009 11:18

Of course Free Basic is 100% better then expencive PB...

erosolmi · Post by **erosolmi** » Aug 23, 2009 14:05

I use PB on a daily basis and FB every now and than.

Both are good (it would be quite impossible to list pro/cons of both compared to each other) but I personally prefer PB mainly because:
- quite hard to find a bug
- what is documented is what it does (as stated before) and it does a lot
- new versions always have huge new features
- very very compatible with old source code

Back to the original question: the best software is the one that is maintained, implemented and supported. If not, it is not much worth to go on (at least for me).

I hoped FB evolution would have taken another road, even commercial. I would have spent some money for it but unfortunately things are going into a different direction.

Regards
Eros

E.K.Virtanen · Post by **E.K.Virtanen** » Aug 23, 2009 16:32

Betterness of compiler comes from the need of the indivudual user. PB is available only for MS-OS's while FB is for windows, dos, linux + experimentals. That makes FB better for me, and there is no reason for me to look more of the features list.

Someone else disagrees, though he/she has different needs.

But if someone comes to FB forums and starts conversation like this...err...planned troll? nvm. im out of here.

VonGodric · Post by **VonGodric** » Aug 24, 2009 5:15

I had a small investigation into the matter. Sadly lack of a demo program and samples on the official site makes this rather complex. ( unless I missed something obvious )

however I can certainly understand the appeal of power basic. Let's face it. It has professional paid team working on it, official support by the company, I fully believe the claims about stability and speed because as said before they have the resources to fine tune their compiler. These are things that matter a lot in business and I can see why power basic would easily be chosen over other potential projects. Don't forget that such decisions are often not made by programmers, but managers!

Having said that what I think of the language itself however is a different story. I guess for each his own and perhaps PB represents a different kind of programming model than what I value and am used to. Still "features" such as extensive use of fixed statements for many tasks rather than more modern approach of API interface; visual bloat with numerous suffixes and prefixes for data types, variables and statements; utter lack of OO features; immense clutter of global namespace; odd and often counter intuitive choice of syntax; are among my many complains.

The IDE packaged and provided is so 90s era that it makes me cringe how does a company sell this as a commercial project these days? Splitting the windows and console mode compilers into separate products. Lack of comprehensive "getting started guide", samples and demos about their language and products is also a bad thing in my opinion. Oh there is a reference guide -but that is really not what I'd want to see being new to the language.

In my opinion unless they really revolutionize their product line they will soon be completely bankrupt. Only perhaps old die hard, vendor locked companies / developers will use their product. But little new.