PowerBASIC has been sold! (PowerBasic IS ALIVE !)

[Marc Giao]

https://forum.powerbasic.com/forum/announcements-articles-and-support-faqs/product-announcements/757277-powerbasic-has-a-new-home

[John Strasser]

I notice I can't get into the forum 

I don't suppose there are any copies gbthreads or poffs around anywhere with an up to date database? My weekend project is now apparently too late.

[Theo Gottwald]

One of the Powerbasic Users had a company that sold programs to 10.000s of US Tax-Offices.
So his program was sold a lot of times and he earned more money then PB.
He solved the problem of PB beeing outdated and without support now shorthand.
He just bought the Source Code.
Seeing this situation, the outlook for PowerBasic for the next years is much bnetter then anybody would have expected in the last month.
Because Taxes will survive. And now they will pay for new PB-Versions :-)

[Patrice Terrier]

Seeing this situation, the outlook for PowerBasic for the next years is much better then anybody would have expected in the last month.

       

   

[James C. Fuller]

I am not as enthusiastic as many on the PowerBASIC forum. With the sale I came to the realization the PowerBASIC I know, love, and most importantly trust is now officially dead. Anything that follows will be DrakeBasic not BobBasic. The Drake's are USERS of PowerBASIC not assembly compiler developers as far as I know. They do appear on the surface to have the capital to hire programmers, but how many compiler developers experienced in tasm32 are there out there? Or maybe Eric is correct in his 16bit dos app that creates a 32bit PB compiler that produces now a 32bit exe/dll?

James

[Peter Weis]

Deutsch:

Ich denke man kann nicht wissen was dabei raus kommt! Wenn er ein guter Programmierer ist wird er sich schon rein finden! Was aber in Assembler schon recht schwierig ist! Ich arbeite gerade wieder an meinen Konsolen Tools die auch in Assembler geschrieben sind! Musste eigentlich nur ein Datenstruktur Byte auf ein Word erweitern. Ich denke ich bin noch ein halbes Jahr beschäftigt bis ich alle Fehler beseitigt habe! Also viel Glück!!!!   

Englisch

I think you can not know what comes out! If he's a good programmer, he'll find it! But what is really difficult in assembler! I am working again on my console tools which are also written in Assembler! Just had to expand a data structure byte to a Word. I think I'm still half a year busy until I've eliminated all the mistakes! So good luck !!!!

[Patrice Terrier]

Because i am one of those half brain (hello Mister ZALE), i am looking forward to learn more about the real motivation of the new owner.

...

[Pierre Bellisle]

Many of us knows that Bob Zale was a character, I've seen him badly unfair with many.

Well let's face it, if it's true that you are a half brain guy,
then you got three of them, it's not too bad. :-) :-) :-)

I guess that we all expect the new owner to share his vision for the next couple of years.
I'm absolutely not a fan of the so called "no vavorware" politic that keep everybody in the dark.

Anyhow, it's a real good news for now. And I think that they may be much more interested in 64 than Bob was.
In a sense, they have to, for their businees to keep up to date, and it's already late.

Que sera sera

[Patrice Terrier]

In a sense, they have to, for their businees to keep up to date, and it's already late.

If this is true, then i know several solutions that would have helped them.

But perhaps, the new PowerBASIC Boss is just an altruist guy wanting to rescue the beached whales.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

But perhaps, the new PowerBASIC Boss is just an altruist guy wanting to rescue the beached whales.

.. which wouldn't be bad news at all from the beached whales' perspective, would it?

[Patrice Terrier]

.. which wouldn't be bad news at all from the beached whales' perspective, would it?

That's for sure, and i just hope for them that they will be rescued before their passing.

I realy hope that somebody would be able to take over ZALE's code, but knowing the man since the time of CompuServe and PBDK, i am very pessimistic.

[Pierre Bellisle]

Hi Patrice,

To make this clear to me,
do you mean that the code is written in a so cryptic and personal way that it's almost impossible to decipher?
If so, is this impression based on something else than the personality of Bob Zale?

Pierre

[Patrice Terrier]

ZALE's code originates from the Bordland time (TASM), and even if it has been ported to MASM it is something very hard to read for non-initiate.
Bob never delegates on that part, except with Dave Navarro a long time ago.
Before his passing Bob was very sick, and he couldn't work anymore 24 hours a day, this is probably the reason why the 64-bit beta never started.
There are many things to be aware when moving from 32 to 64-bit, especially for those using DDT's code.
While a 64-bit SDK only would have been a first step, the DDT'ers are the beached whales especting that they will have just to recompile their code to have it working in 64, but that is not the way it works.
Thus do not underestimate the amount of pedagogy to learn them what to do.

[Marc Giao]

I knew several people that had seen and worked on Bob's code, they said it was unusually well organised and commented so, when Drake took over I asked Phil Drake for his opinion:
https://forum.powerbasic.com/forum/announcements-articles-and-support-faqs/product-announcements/757277-powerbasic-has-a-new-home?p=757289#post757289
 

...the code is written in a so cryptic and personal way that it's almost impossible to decipher?
If so, is this impression based on something else than the personality of Bob Zale?

[Patrice Terrier]

Marc--

Over 400,000 lines of ASSEMBLER to decipher, then better to not have a faint heart, and be ready to accept no social nor family life for monthes, without forgetting a good coffee machine close to hand.