PureBasic Forums - English

GW Basic
QBASIC
...a long break with Turbo Pascal, Profan², XProfan, Delphi, Perl, Python, a bit Ada, Step7, Asm (just tried it, never understood it), some basic like thing on the Casio CFX 9750G Calculator...
...and now I'm here.

Hi,

I started learning programming in the 80's with Commodore Vic20, then GW-Basic and TurboBasic.
Then I did some professional programming with some QuickBasic and Visual Basic, and used Basic on PSION PDA's too.
After I worked with Clipper and FoxPro and since 2000 I work professionally with Java, C/C++ and some web technology but still have used basic (RealBasic/Xojo) for some hobby and professional utilities.

I discovered PureBasic last week while I was thinking if renewing a Xojo license; I tried on Windows and Mac and felt in love with it .
Today I purchased a license.

These days all programs are bloated, it is insane to have 200Mb Electron apps consuming 800Mb+ of RAM. Java in the desktop is a mess, JavaFX is nice but having a 60Mb executable for a simple app is insane too, the whole process to build a Java installer is cumbersome too.

PureBasic has a huge library, creates very small executables without dependencies, it has a simple and straightforward language (no OOP, Design patterns, DI complexities) ... it remembers me the old days when I cold develop a full application in a week in VB or FoxPro.

I already have a candidate project to start developing in PureBasic during Christmas vacations

Regards
Joaquim

Joaquim Rovira wrote:Hi,

I started learning programming in the 80's with Commodore Vic20, then GW-Basic and TurboBasic.
Then I did some professional programming with some QuickBasic and Visual Basic, and used Basic on PSION PDA's too.
After I worked with Clipper and FoxPro and since 2000 I work professionally with Java, C/C++ and some web technology but still have used basic (RealBasic/Xojo) for some hobby and professional utilities.

I discovered PureBasic last week while I was thinking if renewing a Xojo license; I tried on Windows and Mac and felt in love with it .
Today I purchased a license.

These days all programs are bloated, it is insane to have 200Mb Electron apps consuming 800Mb+ of RAM. Java in the desktop is a mess, JavaFX is nice but having a 60Mb executable for a simple app is insane too, the whole process to build a Java installer is cumbersome too.

PureBasic has a huge library, creates very small executables without dependencies, it has a simple and straightforward language (no OOP, Design patterns, DI complexities) ... it remembers me the old days when I cold develop a full application in a week in VB or FoxPro.

I already have a candidate project to start developing in PureBasic during Christmas vacations

Regards
Joaquim

I'm with you brother... I started with a Timex/Sinclair 1000 back in 82'... always hated bloat since then. 2K seemed like alot of RAM back then... lol

Locomotive BASIC (cpc 464)
Amos
Blitz
Pure Basic

Locomotive BASIC (cpc 464)

Loved my locomotive basic, just glad I had the 664 with a disk drive and bought a tape player later.

Also loved my Sharp PC-1500 handheld (with 4 pen printer plotter!), the basic on that was fun!

Oh, boy! This goes back. I prefer Basic over everything else. Let's see if I can recall...

These are the ones I actually wrote something with, not just had a squiz.
I originally learned Fortran (1970?) then WPL.
Firsts Basic was for a HP desktop computer around 1978. HP Basic.
Then TRS-80 Level 1 then Level 2 then the floppy disk version
TRS-80 Model 2 Basic
Tandy Color Computer Basic (similar to the Basic used on the Hitachi Peach and GW Basic)
Commodore VIC-20 (only a few progs)
Sega SC-3000 (half a dozen programs)
Commodore 64 (dozens of programs) including a Basic compiler
BBC Basic (might've had a different name)
Locomotive Basic (Amstrad 6128, dozens of programs)
Amiga AMOS and AMOS compiler
ZBasic (my fav DOS Basic, initially in CPM on the Amstrad 6128 then the DOS version on PC-XT's, dozens of programs)
GFA Basic for DOS
GFA Basic for Windows 3
FutureBasic (Mac version of ZBasic)
Liberty Basic
Power Basic (a little bit only)
ZB5 (Win32 interpreter written in C++ in Australia, never finalized and never released but very stable, several programs)
and finally...PureBasic

Looked at and dabbled with many others but didn't see anything else that caught my interest enough.

My experience with the following varies
BBC Basic
True Basic
Liberty Basic
AGK Basic
REMObjects Mercury (Visual Basic)
B4X
QB64
Twin Basic
PureBasic

I started back in the days with an Acorn Electron. This had the same BASIC as the BBC Microcomputer. That was good as there were a number of books with examples for this computer.
I really enjoyed the tape-relais as this could be opened and closed with the *Motor-command directly. This relais could be used for a lot of things

Then I moved to the PC and found out that DOS 4.01 had GWBASIC.exe. This was like coming home

After moving to Quick BASIC (a few versions) I bought PowerBASIC. This last one was able to create TSR-programs (Terminate and Stay Resident). Programs that could stay in the background and respond to certain Key-combinations!

With Windows I had the idea I had to start all over again.. Visual Basic 6.0 was my first love on Windows. Just draw, and create code in the properties. As a sysadmin ofcourse VBA and VBS

and now the best! PureBasic!! (Since 2015)

(P.S. the back of my head and a real black-and-white VGA monitor. incredible resolution of 640x480!!!)

Wasn't there another thread like this before...?

I could have sworn I had assumed/interpreted Blitz Basic 2.1 on Amiga as the spiritual predecessor to PureBasic, which Fred confirmed.

Either that or I really am getting old...

And rather than rehash a list i probably made already I'll say this: PureBasic is the BASIC I have most enjoyed ever using out of many, and it's the one I have studied and put the most into (although, quite a lot of that was learning WinAPI stuff). And now that the C backend is "here"... wow... As far as I can tell, this will allow quite a lot of uses in mixing PB with C and ASM.

PureBasic is slept on rather criminally.

Joaquim Rovira wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 11:07 amused Basic on PSION PDA's too

Same! I was gutted when Psion went bust.

KosterNET wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:03 pm I started back in the days with an Acorn Electron. This had the same BASIC as the BBC Microcomputer. That was good as there were a number of books with examples for this computer.
I really enjoyed the tape-relais as this could be opened and closed with the *Motor-command directly. This relais could be used for a lot of things

You would have hated me... I, in an experimental moment while my friends brother was at his evening meal, typed "MODE 0" (which may have even been a mode the Acorn didnt have). he had a rather large listing in memory - and apparently "MODE x" effectively does a "NEW" (I suspect it might be slightly more destructive than a commodore 64 "NEW" which really only over writes 3 bytes... On Acorn I guess a whole lot of bitmap memory which may have previously been program mem is zeroed )

Any while we are on the subject of completely FSUing people - I was once a department store and someone was playing Ghostbusters on an Amstrad CPC... I really had the urge to test that the button on the monitor was really only to turn the monitor on and off... Well, apparently it's not )) Sorry for losing your highscore Ghostbusters guy! BYEEEEE! ))) *swift exit*

HP Basic (HP 3000)
Revelation Basic
Universe Basic
Unidata Basic
Pick Basic
QM Basic
Power Basic
Pure Basic

I have used the majority of BASICs listed so far. But, I will add one to the list, the one I started with as a kid at my Grandfather's office in the late 70s; BCPL on the Xerox Alto. BCPL is where I got my first taste of programming.

Ironically, I am not one who for development ever used BASIC because I liked the syntax, I used BASIC because on variants like PureB, I can simply get more work done quicker and with less bloat. More often than not, my work was freelance contracts and I got paid for the job, not by the hour. So the less time spent writing and debugging, the better for me.

Syntax-wise, well my favorite on the PalmOS (all-time fave OS to develop for) was PocketC. For Windows, I loved Jamagic (brilliant product and was awesome for apps or 2d) and Aurora. Also, I heavily used Delphi 2 and Delphi 1 in the early days of Windows.

For Windows development, back in the day, the early versions of MSVC++ had a shitty IDE and for GUI apps was not comparable with VB & Delphi. Anytime I used VC++ in the early days, I only did so with the Octopod IDE. It took forever for MSVC++ to catch up with VB.

BarryG wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:35 am Same! I was gutted when Psion went bust.

I still use my Series 3a for writing. So convenient.

GWBASIC (DOS)

BlitzBasic
DarkBasic

PureBasic

For the past 3 years I worked at a company where there is no outside software allowed, so I stopped using PureBasic for a while.

Now that I worked at a different company, I started to dabble back. I was looking at visual scripting for a while, something like...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWCT_(software)

but more modern. Maybe something like Game Maker Studio 2 but for GUI / application development. Mostly target web-app.

I was learning Python and various GUI toolkit, but still looking for something easier. I tested Xojo and probably going to buy it soon. It just clicked. The $99 version sadly doesn't compile console, but I'm buying Xojo for how it handle GUI app development. I like how it still allow to build 32 bit app, and may run on win 7, native. Target is probably min Win 8 anyway, but I'm OK with that.

I can still use PureBasic should I need something console-ish.

oreopa wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:52 am

KosterNET wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:03 pm I started back in the days with an Acorn Electron. This had the same BASIC as the BBC Microcomputer. That was good as there were a number of books with examples for this computer.
I really enjoyed the tape-relais as this could be opened and closed with the *Motor-command directly. This relais could be used for a lot of things

You would have hated me... I, in an experimental moment while my friends brother was at his evening meal, typed "MODE 0" (which may have even been a mode the Acorn didnt have). he had a rather large listing in memory - and apparently "MODE x" effectively does a "NEW" (I suspect it might be slightly more destructive than a commodore 64 "NEW" which really only over writes 3 bytes... On Acorn I guess a whole lot of bitmap memory which may have previously been program mem is zeroed )

Any while we are on the subject of completely FSUing people - I was once a department store and someone was playing Ghostbusters on an Amstrad CPC... I really had the urge to test that the button on the monitor was really only to turn the monitor on and off... Well, apparently it's not )) Sorry for losing your highscore Ghostbusters guy! BYEEEEE! ))) *swift exit*

AAaaaaand... It's gone...!
I toasted my dad's PC once, after he spent chrismas holidays entering his administration.... *poof*