04-20-2022, 12:24 AM
(04-19-2022, 09:46 PM)Pete Wrote: Several members did migrate from it to FB, which promised to be 100% QB compatible [cough] excuse me. I think folks like me are equipped with built in BS radar devices, but a bunch of QB coders did leave the QBasic Forum and started learning FB. Personally I thought FB was just stringing folks along, until they could get them on their short bus to C, which is more what the language turned out looking like, back then.
Way to belittle freebasic, it was light years ahead of current QB64 before QB64 (or even QB32) even existed. The heavyweights realized modern coding practices were far too convenient to pass up but, it's fair to say, ended up losing sight what QB really was. QB64 is totally doing the same thing with all the new little modern tricks that get bled into the language. Thankfully, the N54 retirement home crowd keeps it rooted -- can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Anyways, good summary. It's worth noting that QB64 IS QB in spirit. It's an emulator, or a tool, to bypass the fact that x86_64 mode no longer supports the "Virtual8086" mode in 32-bit that allowed QB to run on Windows natively. The heart of it all is still QB, just a couple of enhancements like _NEWIMAGE for bigger screens, etc. And as such, QB64 was more than completed in its SDL form back when it survived on N54 forum posts before even qb64.net. The transition to OpenGL/freeglut was a false promise to get it more portable with smartphones and all that but doesn't look like it's happening (try QBJS!). I can't say my experience with QB64 has all that evolved since the SDL days and so there's totally no place for all the corporate crap direction it's been taking recently. Thankfully the farce is over with now that Steve in charge!