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

[Tobias Boege]

On Thu, 23 Jan 2014, Jussi Lahtinen wrote:
> 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.
> 
> 
> I strongly disagree here. C is not for same purposes than basic languages.
> C is good for system programming and things that require fast execution
> speed. Gambas is better for just about everything else.
> 
> 
> 
> > There has to be some imperative for them to switch
> > to Linux. but once that decision is made, their troubles begin!
> 
> 
> Well my troubles only decreased.
> 

Well said!

I'm personally mostly using C for every day programming (because I like to
exploit my machine's characteristics and mix in assembly here and there).
My "every day programming" may not be everyone's "every day programming",
anyway.

But there is a time and place for every language and I tend to believe that
an experienced programmer knows this and isn't biased towards a language
just because it doesn't look as powerful in some areas as the language he is
accustomed to.

For me GUI applications are definitely Gambas' domain. This includes all the
front-end applications for command-line programs and all programs that must
control other programs (even without GUI). Also I wouldn't use anything but
Gambas for painting or database-related stuff (of the languages, I know of).
This is just what I observed, scrolling through my recently opened projects
in the IDE.

E.g., for the paper I'm currently writing (about connecting random points in
a circle and an upper bound for the length of the resulting path when using
a special algorithm), the graphics are from a Gambas program, less than 100
LOC - and they're good! I can't think of any other language where this task
is as easy as in Gambas (at least with the visual effects I wanted to have
in the graphics).

The same program gave me counterexamples for weaker bounds and tested my
hypothesis 150 million times within two hours. Of course, my yet-to-write
assembly test program will be much faster (especially if I get access to
some hardware RNG) but no chance to give me those fancy graphics!

But if it's about some "target market" (jeez!), we shouldn't forget people
like me (how self-absorbed am I today again?): Gambas was my very first
programming language. I got to know it from school, taught it myself,
though, as it wasn't on the curriculum and my brain was fresh enough back
then. What I want to say is: there are lots of schools and I know of some
teaching Gambas - and there is no reason why their number should decrease.

It's not that we should concentrate on VB6 veterans (and maybe make Gambas
more VB6). There are also seasoned Linux users who will appreciate Gambas
and there are youngsters whose first language Gambas may be. All the old VB6
users _I_ have met (shortly after their switch to Linux and Gambas,
admittedly!) were really confused about the distributions' way of package
management, Gambas components, etc. and more complained about the whole
situation. I can't remember having heard from them again...

No doubt, migrating windows users (VB6 or not) are potential Gambas users
and their number may be greater than the ones I was talking about but let's
don't concentrate on any particular group and let Gambas evolve naturally. I
don't like the notion of a "target market" anyway.

My two cents... spread over still too many paragraphs, sorry...

Regards,
Tobi

-- 
"There's an old saying: Don't change anything... ever!" -- Mr. Monk