[Gambas-user] Gambas Future or what kind of Gambas we want.

[Carl Nilsson]

Willy:
My apologies - also to Wally.  My previous on this subject should 
have been addressed to you.  It was in the early hours!
I suppose the more basic answer as to getting a greater take up on 
this lovely language is that you have to identify and satisfy the 
target market.  I would guess by far the largest number of potential 
- not current - users are those who have come from Windows and 
VB6.  If they are long-standing users of Linux, then they are 
probably conversant with C, etc. and don't particularly need/want a 
Basic derivative.  There has to be some imperative for them to switch 
to Linux. but once that decision is made, their troubles begin!  It's 
all in the installation, maintenance and use of Linux and added 
components that a novice gets bogged down, not in Gambas 
itself.  Well, all that can be done there is to offer a packaged 
installation  that's as simple as possible to support and 
maintain.  After all, the user had some reason to switch to Linux, so 
has to expect some learning process, just as with Windows.
Most smartphone users do not know much about Android - he/she just 
immediately starts to use it and learns that way.   I can't see Linux 
ever becoming that simple - it's a different ball game - but there's 
no doubt that the present process of getting Gambas up and running on 
a popular board like RPi and using all the latter's attributes is 
just too cumbersome and time consuming.  If I hadn't been retired, I 
would not have stuck to it so far.  Gambas is not the end in itself - 
you have to look at the end product and make Gambas a part of the 
package the user is wanting to use.  I'll get off the air now!
Carl