PowerBASIC has been sold! (PowerBasic IS ALIVE !)

[Pierre Bellisle]

"Like a beached whale" meaning by thefreedictionary.com:
Completely stuck and unable to move or escape from the situation.

Yep,

No doubt, this is a real challenge.
From my perspective the situation was quite desperate when
Tom Hanlin was responsible for the development.
(Sorry Tom, you didn't keep your promise to the community and never explained why, hence my deception)

I do not expect 64 before three years or so in my wildest dreams.
Five years minimum might be more reasonable.
So, like many, I will continue to develop in parallel mainly with another language to have access to a 64bit compiler.
The risk is that after all this time, I had become so familiar with my current 32/64bit compiler that I won't need anything else.

This said, I will give time to this new player, who spent time and money to acquire PowerBASIC,
so he can show the world what he can do.

One thing for sure, the way I see this, the situation is much better than it was a few days ago.  ;-)

Pierre

[Patrice Terrier]

One thing for sure, the way I see this, the situation is much better than it was a few days ago.

Or it couldn't be worse, but perhaps they have found a Wizard to work on it, and to paraphrase Trump, make PowerBASIC great again, who knows

[Pierre Bellisle]

I wish them a couple of "Paul Dixon", pretty rare stuff but not non-existent. 

Pierre

[Mike Lobanovsky]

I do not expect 64 before three years or so in my wildest dreams.
Five years minimum might be more reasonable.

No, things aren't as bad actually. If you'd like to listen to someone who has practical experience in compiler development in relation to BASIC, Asm and stuff, then I'd estimate a feasible time frame between now and beta release of a fully functional 32-bit PowerBASIC cross-compiler (regardless of asm bitness and/or flavor of Bob Zale's legacy) capable of emitting 32- and 64-bit executables from the common x86/x64 code base to be on the order of 10 to 12 months provided the Drakes do not attempt "wrapping their heads around Bob's assembler code" using their in-house PB/SAP/Sage/whatever programmers and general-purpose IT specialists, to say nothing of shrinking this activity to a sub-subsidiary status or someone's leisure time altogether.

A successful 370+ strong US resident company is surely in a position to hire a team of 3 (worse) to 5 (better) dedicated developers with a strong BASIC background proficient in assembly and compiler development, to quickly catch up on all the years lost while PB was idle -- even if the entire team were born Bay Area or NYC residents by their living standards and salary expectations. We are talking here about the instrument the company's entire success has been built on, after all.

[Pierre Bellisle]

Quite interesting Mike, I've set a self memo for 2018-02-08.

I will be back in one year for sure...

Se you later,
Pierre

[Pierre Bellisle]

I Stefan,
I'm not sure to follow you. Can you elaborate?

Pierre

[Pierre Bellisle]

q> that was a joke

A very good one I must admit... ;-)

[Theo Gottwald]

In fact i have talked to Semen M. (the older here may know him).

He said, that its possible to make the new 64 bit compiler "in no time", if the 32-bit ASM-Code  is available.
So its a question of getting the right Wizzards for the Job.
People who have that special visual Brain with code-structure in it.
Like Jose, Semen, Hutch, Paul, Pierre and few others.
If you take some average "just available programmers" it may get a longer and more troublesome Journey. We will say what they do.

[Paul Yuen]

Keep our fingers cross and hold your hands together, let us pray for divine help for pb inc?
I'm sure that there are many capable masm programers around that pb inc can rope in to complete
Bob's meticulous code.

[Carlo Pagani]

In fact i have talked to Semen M. (the older here may know him).

Hey Theo - Why don't you say hi from us and let him update us with what he is doing these days.

[Theo Gottwald]

I did. :-)

[Pierre Bellisle]

Quite interesting Mike, I've set a self memo for 2018-02-08.

I will be back in one year for sure...

Se you later,
Pierre

;-)

[Theo Gottwald]

Semen is busy doing Software Projects, currently also with Smartphones. I wonder what he will come up with.
If anybody want say "Hi " to him, ask me witz PM then i give you his Mailadress.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

;-)

Pierre,

I can't possibly know what's if fact going on at the Drakes, and even less, be held responsible for that. My estimation was based on my idea of a fair deal aimed at developing Bob's legacy. However as we know, there may be other less transparent strategies. For instance, paying big money to lock the project up in the bottom drawer and thus secure a far greater investment in something competitive.

I don't want to speculate any more on this subject. Frankly, I both lost interest and ran out of popcorn waiting for anything to happen at all.

[Pierre Bellisle]

Of course. ;-)