Future of powerbasic

[James OShea]

Mentioning dates brings to mind something else when I ordered the manuals several years ago.  I was told by email they had shipped on a date that was about a week prior.  When I did finally receive the manuals, the Pitney Bowes postage meter that PB Inc. had in their office had stamped the postage with the date of the email, so it had not been sent out a week prior as they claimed.

Bob never would explain that when I called him on it.

Maybe lying is part of their standard operating procedure.  I've dealt with companies like that, I just never thought PowerBASIC was one of them.

It would depend on how much work was done on the 64-bit version before Bob died.  Hopefully more work was being done on it than on the Linux version or PB DOS 4.0.

My guess is not much.  Now as far as PB/DOS 4.0, I would have liked to see that.  Built in support for SVGA?  Sound Blaster/Adlib Support?   

[Brice Manuel]

My guess is not much.  Now as far as PB/DOS 4.0, I would have liked to see that.  Built in support for SVGA?  Sound Blaster/Adlib Support?

A lot of people were looking forward to PB DOS 4.0

[David Roberts]

I am starting to nod off but it has just gone 8pm in Florida. If PB were reading this thread I would have put money on James receiving an email by now. They were certainly coming here at the beginning of the year when the PB site was done for a week or so. Perhaps when their site is up they don't bother to call by even though at the top right of this page we have "Your resource for programming with PowerBASIC".

If I was in PB's admin I would definitely come here every now and then.

They haven't got a clue have they?

[Chris Holbrook]

They haven't got a clue have they?

Nor have we, no idea what is going on inside, conflict, pressures, etc. The effect is dreadful, but we don't know the cause.

[David Roberts]

We used to hang people for the dreadful effect their behaviour had and, more often than not, we had no idea what was the cause of their behaviour. Quite a few people here in the UK this year have been given life sentences without knowing what the cause of their behaviour was.

Call me old fashioned but if I was James and my disks did not turn up in the next 10 days I would organise a lynch mob. 

[Brice Manuel]

Call me old fashioned but if I was James and my disks did not turn up in the next 10 days I would organise a lynch mob. 

Tar and feathers?

[James OShea]

Nothing that dramatic but in under two weeks I will have to escalate the case with the payment service and will push for a refund for the PB/Win and PB/Forms.   I will then consider myself another former PB customer.

[Brice Manuel]

Nothing that dramatic but in under two weeks I will have to escalate the case with the payment service and will push for a refund for the PB/Win and PB/Forms.   I will then consider myself another former PB customer.

Hopefully they will decide to exercise some honesty and integrity.

[Chris Holbrook]

Call me old fashioned but if I was James and my disks did not turn up in the next 10 days I would organise a lynch mob.

Dai bach, sometimes grumpiness can spill over into incitement to riot. I would not support that transition, and do not consider that we PBers should encourage social unrest in the USA.

What most of us are suffering at the hands of PowerBASIC is disappointment, not fraud. The problem appears to be that Bob Zale was pretty much a one-man band and he did not make arrangements for a successor. Quite a lot of people thought that they were buying a better future with their PB licences, and since last November, they were wrong. Did BZ ever say that the company would survive him?

[David Roberts]

and do not consider that we PBers should encourage social unrest in the USA.

You are absolutely right, Chris.

Were should we encourage it then?

[Chris Holbrook]

and do not consider that we PBers should encourage social unrest in the USA.

Were should we encourage it then?

No, no, no.

OTOH I could use a new refrigerator...

[Brice Manuel]

What is sad is with PB Inc. having the issues they are, this has already caused many folks to leave the compilers.  Financially this affects those who target PB-only with third-party addons/products.  I have encouraged one such developer over the years to target other languages with his products.  It would be sad to see PB tool developers go under due to the struggles PB Inc. is having.  I do hope PB Inc. gets themselves together for the sake of the community and those who share the customer base with PB Inc.  There are some really wonderful people in the community, which has always been the strongest asset of PB.

[Dennis Wallentin]

Hi all,


My background is probably very different then most people here. I have spent more > 25 years in Microsoft's Eco system.

I've been lurking around this forum as well as PB forum and Chris's EZGUI forum for some time now. I'm the customer that PB don't want to have; a newbie to the PB compiler and using it for my pleasure and occasionally doing some minor jobs for non-profitable organizations.

Let's face the situation, there is a core of a few strongly devoted PB developers who keep both PB Inc and the compiler alive. Without these guys PB probably would have been dropped and gone long time ago.

The compiler is really good but that does not justify a poor and arrogant custom service, no user-friendly documentation, especially for newbies and so on.


For me it appears that PB Inc still think a good technical product like the compiler sells by itself. Those days are gone and to be competitive today requires a different mindset then for 20 - 25 years ago.



Funny, but it seems that the x64 is less attractive outside the server halls and powerful workstation computers. Giving the rapid development of personal devices other platforms like iOS, Android etc are more attractive.

I expect to see the x86 desktop to be alive and doing well. The major change is that it's no longer is the 'one and only' platform.


The strong devoted group of PB developers will still find their income based PB but for other developers PB is not the #1 option.

I still haven't find any documents that outline the future of the compiler.


In case anyone feels offended by my post I apologize for it.

Thanks for reading my post.

[James OShea]

I'm the customer that PB don't want to have; a newbie to the PB compiler and using it for my pleasure and occasionally doing some minor jobs for non-profitable organizations.

As long as you are a paying customer you are the kind of customer that PowerBASIC wants.  PowerBASIC, especially during the PB/DOS days, was always both a professional and hobbyist programming language.   PB/CC is more hobbyist friendly but both PB/Win and PB/CC have their professional and hobbyist users. In the Microsoft world, Visual BASIC is both a professional and hobbyist language.

The compiler is really good but that does not justify a poor and arrogant custom service, no user-friendly documentation, especially for newbies and so on.

Their customer service is terrible.  The documentation is OK if you come to it with a good BASIC background. 

For me it appears that PB Inc still think a good technical product like the compiler sells by itself. Those days are gone and to be competitive today requires a different mindset then for 20 - 25 years ago.

This is something that PowerBASIC doesn't understand nor do I think they ever will.  When Bob Zale died there was a three week period of silence.  I understand this since his death is a private family matter but when they decided they wanted to keep the company going they should have been more open with the existing customers.  When Bob died, if they had decided to pull the plug on PowerBASIC that would have been understandable but this vague limbo leaves current users without direction and I am sure discourages anyone from becoming a new customer. 

[Brice Manuel]

I do not have access to the PB forums, but I am curious if somebody clicked on Jim Bailey's name and looked at his stats, what would be the last date he accessed the forums?  Is he ignoring these, too?