[Gambas-user] Gambas on cover of Linux Format #64 (March)

[Jim Ward]

I'm always suprised at how many people consider basic a toy language.
I've had some pretty massive manufacturing account systems running un
BASIC, as well as a host of other enterprise worthy packages. I've
used lots of breeds of BASIC, Pascal, COBOL and some C and Java, but
for doing prototypes and standard applications BASIC has a place. No
offense, because C is great for standard applications too and BASIC is
hardly the systems development tool of choice. For the past 5 years
I've tried to let people know that Linux needs a BASIC development
tool and am glad that GAMBAS is finally here. Keep up the great work
guys. It appears people are beginning to pay attention.

Regards,
Jim


On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 09:44:29 -0500, Rob <sourceforge-raindog2 at ...94...> wrote:
> Second try.... the first time I sent this it vanished into the ether.
> 
> As people have previously reported, there's a review of Gambas in the
> current Linux Format.  I was surprised when I finally got my copy (in
> the US, we get it rather late) to see a Gambas 1.0.1 screenshot on
> the cover disc and a mention of it ("Visual Basic meets its match in
> Gambas") on the cover itself.  The magazine is mostly blue this month
> with a large STOP sign (as in, "Stop paying for software!"), and the
> featured app on the cover discs is a full install of NetBSD.  It's
> the March issue, LXF64.
> 
> The review itself, on pages 28 and 29, was mixed, but mostly positive
> (8 out of 10).  It included a nice sidebar on how you could make a
> web browser in 6 steps, with screenshots.  However, the text of the
> review was often steeped in the "BASIC is only for kids/noobs"
> mentality, and I think that affected its final score.  Here is the
> Condensed Version, with one sentence per paragraph.  The author of
> the original review was Paul Hudson, and the below are a reflection
> of his opinions and not my own.
> 
> ==================================================
> 
> Reviews: Gambas
> 
> He really thinks Pascal is the ideal language for beginners.  You may
> think BASIC is good if you're a beginner, but someday you'll grow up.
> Microsoft made Visual Basic popular, though, and now there's a
> project to make a Linux equivalent.
> 
> Gambas compensates for BASIC's non-graphical nature differently than
> VB, with a KDE interface designer.  It has a new project wizard, but
> it doesn't generate any skeleton code.  It has a lot of controls but
> is missing a few he likes, and it isn't totally integrated with KDE.
> Gambas handles its object orientation much better than VB.
> 
> Gambas makes tiny intepreted executables and has a ton of components
> to add functionality.  Its interface is disorganized, and the mascot
> is even more useless than Clippy.  The editor is impressive, but
> there's no boldface text in the Tooltips.  There are things he thinks
> are missing from Gambas, but it's not far from being great.  BASIC
> sucks, and there's no way to use a different language with the Gambas
> IDE.  He'd compare it to VB4, and "can't imagine creating serious
> applications with it."
> 
> ==================================================
> 
> There you go.  One weird thing is that under "Value for Money" Gambas
> scored only 7 out of 10.  There are a lot of free programs that have
> the "Value for Money" category and I haven't seen a single one of
> them hit 10/10.  Does that mean the reviewer feels he'd need to be
> paid before using said software? ;)
> 
> All kidding aside, though, I agree with some of his criticisms (the
> mascot, the multi-window interface, the need to eventually have
> skeleton code for new projects) and think others are off the mark (it
> looks like he thinks any app that uses Qt is automatically a KDE
> application, and he seems afraid of BASIC to begin with.  Wonder why
> they didn't load up the Runtime Revolution review a couple months ago
> with similar caveats.)
> 
> On a final note, the guys over at gpwiki.org, in the forums are pretty
> interested in using Gambas with SDL to make Linux (and eventually,
> crossplatform) games.  Anyone working on SDL games in Gambas should
> make an announcement over there when you have something worth
> showing.... I plan to.
> 
> Rob
> 
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