Future of powerbasic

Started by Sutthisak Phongthanapanic, September 01, 2013, 12:10:38 PM

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Patrice Terrier

Quoteand the PowerBASIC.Com site is down ... again

Glad you are, to have this forum, because down it never goes ;)
Patrice Terrier
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Chris Holbrook

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James OShea

#17
Their telephones appear to be down too.  I keep getting a message that the circuits are busy.  Maybe a local problem and not a problem with PowerBASIC.

I was trying to call them because I am still trying to get the physical copies of PB/DOS, PB/CC and PB/Forms that I ordered and paid for almost a month ago.  I ordered the PB/DOS and PB/CC first then the PB/Win and PB/Forms a week later.  All upgrades.  Around the same time as I ordered the PB/Win and PB/Forms out of the blue they email me the PB/DOS and PB/CC.   No explanation.  That's fine.  I email them saying that since they didn't send the physical copies of PB/DOS and PB/CC out yet could they combine everything and credit me for the second shipping.  I get an email back from Jim saying they will combine and credit me the $10.  He also said everything would shipping that Friday.  Another week  and a half passes, nothing.   I write back and Jim says they will resend all the disks that day.  Kind of like the checks in the mail excuse  but I figure they will go out for sure this time.  Another week goes by and still nothing.  I send another email (not as nice) and .... silence.

Now I know PowerBASIC is not a fly by night outfit.  I bought my first copy of PB/DOS back in 1995.  My fear is things are so chaotic there that they can't manage the simple task of shipping disks or keeping the website up.

Another example of their legendary customer service?    Caveat emptor

Update:
I got an email from from them that a staff member was in an accident and that they were behind in shipping. 
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David Roberts

#18
Quotethey can't manage the simple task of shipping disks
That is assuming they have disks to ship.
QuoteMaybe a local problem and not a problem with PowerBASIC.
Yeah, may be so but your story, James, is a separate issue to this third episode of the year.

Caveat emptor?

Duly noted.
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Francisco Castanedo

Quote from: James OShea on September 07, 2013, 12:59:46 AM
Their telephones appear to be down too.  I keep getting a message that the circuits are busy.  Maybe a local problem and not a problem with PowerBASIC.

Now I know PowerBASIC is not a fly by night outfit.  I bought my first copy of PB/DOS back in 1995.  My fear is things are so chaotic there that they can't manage the simple task of shipping disks or keeping the website up.

It sure seems bad. Hope it is temporary but sure looks as if the whole thing broke down. It looked strange not to have word of updates or new releases or nothing!! Bad, bad.

I know for a fact that C is the languege to learn besides PowerBasic... when you are young and have plenty of time and neurons to master it.
Another solution for us pre-retirement folks is WinDev. Once you get the hang of it must be very easy and fast to build full blown applications, and with the fast machines out there today the speed of PowerBasic could be set aside.

For now let's wait and see.
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James OShea

Quote from: Francisco Castanedo on September 07, 2013, 04:57:59 AM
I know for a fact that C is the languege to learn besides PowerBasic... when you are young and have plenty of time and neurons to master it.
Another solution for us pre-retirement folks is WinDev. Once you get the hang of it must be very easy and fast to build full blown applications, and with the fast machines out there today the speed of PowerBasic could be set aside.

I am using the last of my neurons to relearn Visual Basic.  I was a big fan of Visual Basic v 1-6.  I am not a big fan of the .net versions but it's time to retire the VB6 and move on to .net.  Interestingly, Microsoft Visual Studio is language neutral, VB, C++, C# all compile into the same code.   It's slow and bloated compared to PB/Win but as a skill it is more marketable.
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Patrice Terrier

Francisco--

QuoteAnother solution for us pre-retirement folks is WinDev. Once you get the hang of it must be very easy and fast to build full blown applications, and with the fast machines out there today the speed of PowerBasic could be set aside.

You will be amazed to see what i have done with it (for others). And it could be mixed with DLL written in other languages, including PowerBASIC when you need to perform real time processing task.

One of my best customer is a formal PB's user who followed my advice, he becames the official importer of PC-Soft in the UK, and built a success story with it.  :)

Aside note:
Most WinDev programmers do not have any clue about low level SDK programming, thus giving a wealth of opportunity for those knowing it...


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James OShea

#22
I got a nice email from PowerBASIC explaining that a key staff member had been in an auto accident, fortunately not seriously injured, which caused them to be behind in their email and shipping.  I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.  As far as the website, web service providers go down, so that may not be their fault.  Hopefully, I'll receive my disks shortly.

Getting back to the topic of this discussion, PowerBASIC has to be near the end of their upgrade cycle.  People that had previously owned PowerBASIC have already upgraded and new customers are few and far between. I think that PowerBASIC needs to concentrate on the PB/Win compiler, eventually making it X64 and leave the add-ons to other people.  If I had researched better I would have forgone PB/Forms in favor of Firefly.  There are atleast three GUI add-ons that are superior to PB/Forms.  PB/CC is a niche product that is less QBASIC, QuickBASIC and PB/DOS compatible than a free alternative, QB64.  I was able to convert several old PB/DOS programs to QB64 in under an hour.   

The upgrade sale was an excellent idea as it is the reason I upgraded. I even upgraded PB/DOS 3.1 to 3.5 in case MS DOS makes a comeback  ;D .   

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David Roberts

On re-reading your 'Caveat emptor' post, James, my guess is that the story from PB was to make you feel guilty. It is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
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James OShea

I'm cynical but you put me to shame. 

For now, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Ultimately, they hurt themselves as I am less likely to upgrade to future versions of PB.

Because of the delay in getting the PB/Win and PB/Forms, I have had to start a project in VB.net (2010).  VB.net is convoluted compared to VB6 but I have figured out a lot of what Microsoft has changed.    If I become adequate at VB.net I am less likely to upgrade to the next version of PB.
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Chris Holbrook

Quote from: James OShea on September 07, 2013, 05:21:08 PM
I got a nice email from PowerBASIC explaining that a key staff member had been in an auto accident, fortunately not seriously injured, which caused them to be behind in their email and shipping. 
Sounds like a classic example of the "Dog Ate My Homework" genre.
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Patrice Terrier

QuotePowerBasic is facing some difficult challenges.
Euphemism
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Chris Holbrook

Just checked the PowerBASIC Twitterfeed, apparently they have all of 92 followers, and haven't tweeted for a month. Sad!
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Guy Dombrowski

Well,

As I have been maintaining a lot of obsolete QB45 programs that are still doing the job ( But not with 64 bits OS ) I am not too worried about my new PB programs.

Even if PowerBasic would shut down, my programs will still work and it is too late for me to start moving on a new platform.
Compared to what I had to work before, I have hardly begin to learn all but a small part of the new commands.

So, I will be writing PB code for a while yet.




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David Roberts

QuoteSad!
When the site went down at the beginning of the year I was a bit annoyed at the lack of communication from PB. When it went down the second time I was fuming at their not learning anything from the first episode; classic incompetence.

When it went down last weekend I too went to Twitter after quite a few hours and could not believe that it hadn't been updated since 2 Aug - the three tweets were all dated 2 Aug.

I haven't been the slightest bit annoyed this time but, like you Chris, I just felt sad and especially since no comment at the forums.

"We are in the process of fixing our forum email, and we hope to have it fixed this week."

Jim Bailey wrote that on 29 April. It is worth noting that we used to get notifications on PMs as well as activity on subscribed threads. Some folk may call by regularly but not log in so they will not be aware that a PM awaits them. I've had a few notifications from this forum in the last few days and it makes a world of difference.

29 April! - that is over four months ago.

After the second episode we were told of a marketing guy and an IT guy were joining. Either that did not happen or they have left otherwise a third episode identical the first two would have been dealt with differently. OK, the site was not down as long as the first two episodes and I'm not sure how long it was down but it was down long enough to warrant a comment.
QuoteSo, I will be writing PB code for a while yet.
So will I, Guy, and I suspect many other folk will as well.

On a new compiler version I usually part with my hard earned as soon as I am aware of their existence. This will not be the case in the event of new versions and I suspect that will be the case for many other folk as well. Now, that is sad!
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