Future of powerbasic

Brice Manuel · October 21, 2013, 12:10:53 AM

Quote from: James Klutho on October 20, 2013, 11:35:47 PMThrough August 21, 2013 only about 50 new forum members were added this year (and none since then in part due to the forum being abandoned).

I wonder how many of those were legitimate sales and how many were curiosity seekers or those joining just to download some attachments before the forum disappeared?

James Klutho · October 21, 2013, 01:56:14 AM

They all look pretty legitimate to me.

David Roberts · October 21, 2013, 01:59:43 AM

Actually, the marketing guy is on holiday this week. It was an easy mistake to make - he is called Ian Thomas Guru.

The IT guy popped out for some cream for his coffee three weeks ago and nobody has seen him since. I don't know if there is a shortage of cream in Florida or whether he has no intention of returning.

As you know Vivian Zale is head of sales. Her assistant, Sarah, is responsible for shipping disks but is currently on maternity leave; which explains why James Oshea is still waiting for his disks. I am not sure when Sarah is back but hang in there James, you are at the top of Sarah's list. Now, most of the staff at PB have dual roles and Sarah is a bit of a coder. She was working on the 64 bit version of the compilers but, obviously, that had to be put on the 'back burner'. It will suffer a further set back as Sarah will have more than six months of sales to deal with on her return.

Kevin, the cleaner, started last Sunday. PB's offices are not large and the server room also doubles as the cleaner's cupboard. Kevin pulled the plug on the servers so that he could use his vacuum cleaner. He was spoken to last week but he may well find a part of his anatomy in a sling tomorrow as it seems that he has done it again.

Jim Bailey is back on his feet. Well, foot as the other one is still on the mend.

Stop Press:

There was a shortage of cream in Florida and the IT guy didn't manage to get any until he got to Brunswick in Georgia. He will be back at his desk on Monday. He would have got back sooner but he was abducted by aliens when driving through Jacksonville. He cannot remember anything of the incident. I can understand that because I cannot remember anything when I was abducted a few years ago on the way to a theatre.

So, there you have it: The marketing guy is only off for a week, Sarah will be back shortly, the IT guy did not leave, Jim is back in the fold and Kevin is unlikely to make the same mistake next Sunday. Oh, someone will notice the server's plug tomorrow and the site will be back up at about 0830, Monday.

Mike Stefanik · October 21, 2013, 06:03:19 AM

You put far too much time and energy into that.

James OShea · October 21, 2013, 07:36:36 AM

The cleaning crew pulling the plug on the web server for their vacuum cleaner every weekend sounds plausible and is a better explanation than PowerBASIC has ever given us.

Mike Mayerhoffer · October 21, 2013, 08:23:02 AM

David , the nerve of you accusing hard working Americans of doing holidays , Holidays is for real important people in the USA like Government workers, they can stay home and get paid for the same thing they do at work. Absolutely Nothing.

Us working slobs ( in the states) have to take vacations.

Besides the rest of the story seems pretty much on the money, the normal, nothing but the truth

We will let it slide.

Theo Gottwald · October 21, 2013, 09:41:53 AM

What happened to Jim "Bailey" and "Jeff Daniels"?
Did they take a walk with "Johnny Walker" ?

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Paul Squires · October 21, 2013, 12:52:29 PM

Quote from: Theo Gottwald on October 21, 2013, 09:41:53 AM
What happened to Jim "Bailey" and "Jeff Daniels"?

I have always believed from day one that those two "staff members" were simply pseudonyms that BZ used when he wanted to make a point with a customer. The language and tone of the emails were almost exactly the same as that used by him. Later, if the conversation was still not to his liking, the responses would "escalate" to BZ and he would then post under his real account.

Theo Gottwald · October 21, 2013, 02:43:08 PM

The names were choosen in a way that somebody could have such an impression.
But these names also imply another problem, that is one of the reason why PB went downwards.

As it looks, I'll soon ask Garry for his offline-copy of the Forum.
Maybe I can put it in a Dropbox and share it this way.

Steve Hutchesson · October 23, 2013, 03:29:55 AM

Guys,

There is something missing in this whole discussion, the current PB Compilers are in fact good tools and can come close to doing anything in Win32 in terms of EXE and DLL files. With the bare compilers there is almost unlimited room for expansion with both collections of procedures in text files that can be included while relying on the redundant code removal to ensure that no junk is added. Then there is the new library system with SLL components that start to give PB programmers the convenience of other languages that have had add in libraries for many years.

It has a close to MASM compatible assembler that is truly no slouch and in combination with other capacities will be a useful tool until the dead end of Win32. If PowerBASIC closed its doors today nothing here will change as the compilers exist and have the existing capacity. From what I have seen almost none of these new capacities have been exploited.

The coming era of Win64 is another matter. With Bob passing away it may not happen in any hurry but then there is no reason to only restrict yourself to one tool, there are a miriad of other tools available and if PB does not produce a 64 bit compiler, use something else.

Much has been done, look at how good Jose's include files are, what is wrong with producing a whole pile of libraries, procedures in text form and some rock 'n roll assembler to get the pace up ?

Marc Giao · October 23, 2013, 05:48:54 AM

Steve, thanks opening the window letting some fresh air in, everyone, take a deep breath now and enjoy the sun...

"Don't worry be happy"

Marc

Theo Gottwald · October 23, 2013, 10:18:27 AM

@Tom, we should see the positive also. I have removed on post that looked too dark in my eyes.
Besides that the PowerBasic Compiler is still my best tool for x32 and i have no reason to change my opinion because the Company continues to behave like many US Companies these days.
Yesterday somebody told me that major US IT Companies make a hell of money ... not with IT ... but with filing Law suits.
Its what they earn most money with. Its the reason why some of them seem to earn so much. Not with real work.
If i look at the their presidents yesterday ideas about the drone strikes, and then at Windows 8.1 ... then i can only think "The whole country has no culture". So no need to just blame PowerBasic.

Brice Manuel · October 23, 2013, 01:26:54 PM

@Steve: Many of us are happily plugging along with PowerBASIC and will continue to do so, until such time it no longer works on current versions of Windows.

Quote from: Tom Perkins on October 23, 2013, 10:56:24 AM
... and what the remaining software industry does is no measure or excuse for the misconduct by PowerBASIC Inc.! Strictly speaking, the company has no future at all.

What is worse than the misconduct of PowerBASIC is the person who KNOWS orders are not being filled (James has still NOT received the CDs he paid for), yet created a blog post encouraging people to buy PowerBASIC. What he doesn't realize is his recent actions can only hurt PowerBASIC. If people buy PowerBASIC based on his blog post, and then find they can't receive the product they have paid for, all he has accomplished is to create more problems for PowerBASIC and create more disgruntled customers.

Theo Gottwald · October 23, 2013, 03:15:38 PM

I read last time in the Forum from another US Software company.
They sold a Backup Program.
Finally the RESTORE of the saved files did not work.
The support explained "Its a backup program not a restore program".
PB is just ONE of these ... only $$$ and no culture.

Brice Manuel · October 26, 2013, 02:46:26 AM

If there is to be a future for PowerBASIC, they need to immediately, and permanently, ban the person who has shanghaied the official forums and turned it into his own personal jihad of self-promotion and vicious attacks against anybody who tries to get him to calm down. PB Inc.: This person is driving away some of the customers you have left. If you do NOT put an end to this, it will only get worse and you will see more customers leave.

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Future of powerbasic