Future of powerbasic

[James C. Fuller]

Steve,
  Why not try the new Visual Studio 2013 Community for your c++ experiments?
I do not use the ide and compile using a batch file which I attach for any lurkers.

It will compile 32/64 exe [con gui],dll or obj from xxx.c or xxx.cpp files

VS12.BAT filename.[c|cpp] [-m32|m64] [con|gui|dll|obj] extra files

I also include VS12MFC.BAT for use with the now included support for Microsoft Foundation Class library
See the batch file for it's use.

James

[Frederick J. Harris]

Typical Microsoft installation was the usual mess, the binaries worked except for cvtres.exe which was broken....

It makes me happy to know I'm not the only one uses stuff like that!

The last version of MS Visual Studio I bought was 2008.  I spent gads of time trying to figure out where everything was at, that is, the various build binaries, and finally about gave up and just used their vcvars.bat file for doing command line work.  It was the 64 bit issue that confused things, of course. 

[Steve Hutchesson]

Fred,

What I have tended to do is lay out a directory structure (bin include lib help) then copy the files from the Microsoft installation into that directory structure so you end up with a self contained system that does not depend on things splattered all over the place. I keep VC2003 as it builds almost all standard C code that I have used over time including the old SDK utilities, any version of JWASM etc .... You need both the VC version and the compatible SDK, combine them and you can build most API and ANSI C based code.

Sad to say I have had my share of broken MS installs, back in the early win 3 days I paid too much for Microsoft C Version 7 and it was badly broken for its target of API Windows code. They did not fix it until VC version 1. They generally make good C compilers/linkers etc ... but their libraries tend to be very uneven and their installations unreliable.

James,

Thanks for the offer but its the absolutely wrong end of what I am after, I would not touch MFC or C++ with a barge pole, I am mainly interested in the ASM dump that CL produces. Starting on another version is more work for no gain. As far as a C++ community, I have rarely every seen much else than infantile nonsense and people juggling their pecking order. If I get the time I will have a look at your batch file as it may contain something I can use.

[Frederick J. Harris]

What I have tended to do is lay out a directory structure (bin include lib help) then copy the files from the Microsoft installation into that directory structure so you end up with a self contained system that does not depend on things splattered all over the place.

That's an interesting idea and I hadn't thought of it.  Might give it a try someday.  What I found out though was that their shortcuts to an x86 command prompt and an x64 command prompt for the respective compiler worked OK, and that's all I really wanted, bottom line.  Doing what you did though would provide a greater sense of satisfaction though!

[Theo Gottwald]

Funny, the PB-Site ist still up ....
http://www.powerbasic.com/

[James Klutho]

Notice that the foot traffic on the PowerBasic forum is an order of magnitude above PureBasic or FreeBasic.  I can't see Fred spending much time on PureBasic in the future since I figure he has to have a day job.  The PureBasic average traffic is not that much different than this site plus it's sister language (Blitzbasic) is now defunct so the family that shares the quirky syntax is a lot smaller.  PowerBasic is heads and shoulders above the other offerings in my opinion.  Too bad it is frozen in time.