>> >>anybody up for the programming equivalent of a barn-raising? >> >>-bowerbird > -snip- > >BUT, what to program? > >Mike Well... Lot's of things we could program. We could write QuickTime editors, word processors, databases and all sorts of stuff that would keep us busy for years. But, what is the objective? It is to get people to know FutureBASIC? If so, for what purpose? Are we trying to get the general public to accept FutureBASIC as a developers' language? Are we attempting to get people to look for the FB label in buying their software? If, so, I don't think we got a snowballs chance in hell. For example: How many of you people know who programmed Photoshop? Or, what's its programmed in? I don't and I've owned and used Photoshop for years. So, I think getting the general public to recognize FB serves no purpose. So, if it's not the general public, then who? Other programmers? My perspective is "Yes, we want to attract other programmers?". Question: Now, how do we do that with a special project? Answer: We do it by providing something that programmers want! Look at the success of Jim's CDEF's. I think that everyone has looked at what he has done and has in some manner used, or thought about using, some of his routines in their programs. That is the type of thing we need, IMHO. In other words, I believe that it would be a good idea to provide something in FutureBASIC that could be used by other/new programmers. The following are some ideas: 1. FB's version of Jim's CDEF's (however, we already have some that's provided by FB). But, we need more. 2. An assortment of routines like Jonathan's PLU_Looks stuff (Great work, I might add). 3. How about a complete FB version of the "Numerical Recipes"? It's in C, FORTRAN, and BASIC. Why not a FB version? 4. More programmers tools. 5. More examples of everything found in the FB manuals. Not complete massive programs, but rather very simplistic programs that show just one aspect. Take a look at my Simple GWorlds (which is on STAZ's site). It is _very_ simple, but shows how to set up offscreen GWorlds and use it. Before I wrote that program I took and studied every example I could lay my hands on. While each program showed me how to use GWorlds, they were, IMHO, very involved for the questions I was asking. I had a hard time sorting thing out. One has to make example very specific which addresses a single issue. And, lastly we need to distribute these routines to the freeware listings everywhere and not just to our own web sites. The good point in this is if the routines are simple, we can make many of them. As such, we get the FB name out more frequent. In other words, I would rather see 50 programs that do just one thing than one program that does 50 things. Well... that's my idea. tedd _____________________________________________________________________ tedd f. sperling <mailto:sperling@...> http://www.sojourn.com/sperling/