Poll your PB-wishlist ...

Theo Gottwald · July 31, 2007, 08:37:26 AM

There are rumors of new versions of PB (maybe for chrismas?).
I did not count how man revisions of visual studio have been there since the last PB version update,
but it would be a good idea.

And its a chance to test the polling-feature of the board :-).

If you think the poll lacks something important, post it here, below.

Each user has 3 possible votes. Therefore you can vote for the 3 most important topics.

Paul Squires · July 31, 2007, 12:57:33 PM

Multi-pass compiler would make things easier (at least for me)

COM is also an area that I wish was easier.

I also feel that PBCC/PBWIN and PBForms should all be one product. Most other BASIC's have all these functionalities built in for a reasonable price.

It is also about time that PB has some form of Class support.

I hope that the next version of PB blows me away. There are other BASIC's out there that are catching up to PB very quickly.

Charles Pegge · July 31, 2007, 01:25:51 PM

Is PB support, in your experience, reponsive to good suggestions?

Edwin Knoppert · July 31, 2007, 03:34:41 PM

1) Better com support, embedded referencing to vtable stuff and no more variants.
2) foreach() (IEnumerator)

Eros Olmi · July 31, 2007, 04:17:06 PM

Theo,

you can do much better doubling that list and setting multiple choices. How can we choose just one?

Of course there are rumors. Current PB version is out since ... how long? More than 2 years old?

Ciao
Eros

PS: PB support is not responsive to whish lists unless subscribers are ... many
They are more open to mails sent to support@powerbasic.com but again, they will do something only if requested by ... many

Charles Pegge · July 31, 2007, 06:39:24 PM

Thinking about the languages itsef:

As a static compiled language PB could benefit from:

Classes & Objects, (OOP fundamentals)
Block scoping
Forward referencing (to avoid upside down programming)
Lambda functionality (passing functions as arguments)
dim multiple variable declaration with initial values.

Some other improvements:

Update Assembler for missing Ops.
Tools for translating C headers.
Merge PBwin and PBcc.
Bundle stripped down generic Linux version with PBwin.
Library of COM functions - exterior to the compiler, (deprecate current COM syntax.)

Eros Olmi · July 31, 2007, 06:47:54 PM

100% with you.

On DIM it could be improved a lot like I did in thinBasic. It is just a parsing problem, nothing complicated.
It seems a little thing but is is that little details that keep great a language on a long run.

Theo Gottwald · July 31, 2007, 09:48:48 PM

@Eros.

Quoteyou can do much better doubling that list and setting multiple choices

Ok, i have changed the Poll to your wish. It allows up to 3 choices per User now!

QuoteIt seems a little thing but is is that little details that keep great a language on a long run.

My personal impression is:
If they would take the time to study thinBASIC for a while, they could learn a lot how to improve language structure.
Maybe not only about DIM.

Eros Olmi · July 31, 2007, 11:49:27 PM

I would be happy just with enanched DIM

Kent Sarikaya · August 01, 2007, 02:09:47 AM

How long will COM be around or is that future of everything Microsoft? I know I read here on the forums that .net is all com objects in essence, just under a new name. That sure would mean easier com access would be a big item.

I voted for objects and classes, but not forced. That is not like Java or c# where is all object oriented, but like c++ you can do procedural or OOP, whatever fits the solution better.
I totally agree that the form tool be part of the product, I was really disappointed when I saw this was not the case, not when there are so many free IDE's that are superb like the new Turbo languages and Microsoft Express Editions.

It seems the future is multi-core everything... I don't know how much of that is up to the programmer or operating system, but I think if it is up to programmer's then it should be a vital part.

Theo Gottwald · August 01, 2007, 08:23:33 AM

I know that other Basics, for example Purebasic or VB.NET - have an integrated Forms-Editor.
But PB - I am quite sure - will never have that before version 10.
Otherwise Dominic or Paul would maybe have less time to post here and would maybe work on something :-).
They cannot stamp a good Visual Designer "out of the floor".
Therefore I just dropped this point because its tooo far from beeing real.

Visual Designer will be an extra.

José Roca · August 01, 2007, 08:31:30 AM

MUST BE an extra. Don't make me pay for a tool that I'm not going to use. If at least was a SDK visual designer...

Edwin Knoppert · August 01, 2007, 10:33:03 AM

Is mine not considered a visual designer?

(+ SDK as well)

Paul Squires · August 01, 2007, 01:32:41 PM

Edwin,

Do you still offer a trial download for PwrDev

Theo Gottwald · August 01, 2007, 02:19:34 PM

@Edwin, you do not have any links in your posting-footer.
There could be links to your web-site, your tools.
Take Pauls footer for example. thats how it should be to make people know what you stand for.

QuoteIs mine not considered a visual designer?

Sent me a copy and I'll consider it :-).
Actually I've never tried it.