[futurebasic] Re: [FB] Show of hands...

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From: jonathan <jonnnathan@...>
Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 12:40:06 +0200
le 2001/05/07 00:33, Wizard557@... à Wizard557@... a écrit :

> As my goals are related to static, logic game simulations, speed etc are not
> significant.  My migration to RealBASIC has been prompted by three events:
> No Sprite engine in FutureBASIC (is this what people are refering to as a 3D
> game engine?), 

There are good sprite examples at matt beedles site - he'll supply the url
as i don't have it to hand. A sprite engine is relatively simple to get
together and i have already home grown a couple. if you need one, build one
and market it for fbers. i'm sure that there'd be enough fo folks interested
to make it worth your while.
I don't believe that a 3D engine can be qualified as a sprite engine
although it may have a subset for that. 3D engines are more the thing to
make doom/quake-like games.

> no ability to compile for a Windows enviroment

Staz has always been clear on this. This is not and is never likely to be a
windows version of FB. Perhaps though as this is a constant demand, someone
could create a third-party FB2Delphi engine? alhough why someone wants to
waste time* in windows is beyone me.

> and no true database engine.

have a look at Sylvain's dataShell plugin <http://www.macbrowse.com/>, that
with the valentina db is certainly hot. i have also recently [yesterday in
paris] tried to convince Sylvain to extend support to MySQL, which would
allow an FB app in the OS-9 partition to interrogate a MySQL database
running in an OS-X partition. Sylvain is sceptical, but i'm trying to push
him to become our DB guru/middleman**.

> As the price of both systems is competitive,

perhaps, remember that a lot of stuff for RB is third-party plug-ins that
must be acquired separately***. whereas staz wishes to bundle as much as
possible with FB.

> I will be forced to develop on platforms to do support my immediate
> requirements, and offer a wider customer base.

if you wish to go for a bigger [dumber****] market and split tech support
and such forth, that is your right. the only force is your desire, not any
shortcomings in FB. FB has never pretended to be other than that which it
is. so 'forced' seems to be a deliberately hard word to use.

each person is free to chose his/her platforms and strategy, and the
environment best suited to that. i wish you luck and success, in the same
way that i have no resentment to RB who obviously also fill a niche for
programmers on the Mac.

> If FB quickly adds these abilities, I will be
> glad to return to the fold.

use FB for its merits. go with the flow. if you buy or use fb for it to be
something else you will be unhappy. i don't wish that. there are some cool
things to be done in fb - if you wish to be part of them, great; if you
don't, that's your choice and i still wish you all the best.

:-j

* i have had, at various times, to work on windows boxes and have always
found them awkward, unstable and counterproductive. recently in a company
where i worked, html coders on macs were easily 50% more productive that
their counterparts on PCs. this is what i call wasting time.

** in the same way that different folks have shifted into different roles
[assembly, graphics...] so i believe Sylvain could grow into this role. he
is bit young to be a guru :-) but if enough folks give him support and
prodding, he could corner db stuff for us.

*** this is not an invitation for geoff to post a reply.

**** i sincerely believe that a mac only market gives an app a better more
controlled environment, and easier tech support. it took me three days to
install internet access on my dad's pc [i told him to buy a mac, he let his
lawyer buy the machine for him!]. net access on a mac - even under system 6
- has never taken more than 10 minutes. i did have hell on OS X but only
because i bypassed apple's setup in order to not pass on my personal info to
apple, and even then, resetting the internet config took 10 minutes [mySQL
took a day]. i don't mean that the Windows users are dumber, just the
machines.