OT: Power Basic bargain

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

PowerBasic compiles whenever you run a program, so it always runs machine code. The DOS version of PB typically executed 3-10x faster than a compiled PDS Basic program. It also compiled in a fraction of the time. It's just better software.

PBCC compile times seldom exceed 0.1 seconds.

John

and

t do

ny

ks

Two points!

snipped-for-privacy@k17g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...

Not much that I care about. There's a summary on their homepage:

Comprehensive list here:

An extra $150, you mean. The current Windows compiler, PB/Win 9.0, sells for $199.

(The company offers a "Windows" version, and a "Console" version of their compiler. What I bought--and what's on sale--is the old Windows version.)

From John's account, for the full price I personally would prefer the "Console" version (PB/CC 5.0). It can display graphics, but it doesn't have all the Windows GUI I/O stuff. That's more my style. PB/ CC 5.0 goes for $169.

But, for $49, and from an excellent no-nonsense company, I'm grabbing the PB/Win 8.0. I figure it's a no-lose, in my book.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

They have upgrade from 8 to 9 at the bottom, 100 extra.

Galileo did.

snipped-for-privacy@o3g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...

Good point. If you want the latest version, PB/Win 9.0, the bargain on PB/Win 8.0, then upgrade to 9.0 looks like the cheapest route.

So, you could try 8.0 for $49+shipping, and if you like it and want the latest Windows compiler, upgrade to 9.0, for $100.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

"Mostly integer" means tat part was essentially ASM if compiled; certainly few FP calls.

May i then assume the comparison (3x-10x faster) is with respect to code that has some or a lot of FP operations?

Most of my programs do a little FP, but I tend to use integers a lot. I do a good deal of string stuff, too.

Anybody running Visual Basic? Wanna try some loops and compare to PBCC?

John

ct)

tight

c 8.0

ode.

ay

f in

ful

nt

He

mpile,

is

to

he

eed

eed

ed

How about FreeBasic?

(Snip)

The info says that you can upgrade it to 9 for $99.

John Ferrell W8CCW

I got mine. Now it is back to "Drinking from the firehose" for a while. Don't overlook the downloads section on the web site and the forum access from the help function. John Ferrell W8CCW

I apologize for missing 1$...

under

product)

tight

PowerBasic 8.0

code.

of

display

stuff in

useful

point

He

compile,=20

=20

to=20

=20

speed=20

speed=20

looked=20

i=20

transform=20

Since most everything in the x86 line has an fpu onboard the cost is = quite=20 small as FP instructions are usually less than 1% of the instruction mix.= =20 Spice and related programs are exceptions. FP emulation gets you about=20 a 100x to 1000x performance hit for FP intensive applications.

I got mine and loaded it -- 14MB, total. I'm impressed.

Time to sip from that firehose myself...

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Ha, Tracking my package. Last entry: INCORRECT ROUTING AT UPS FACILITY

Its stuck in UPS hell.

lol

Cheers

ITY

Okay, here's my update--

You can't just PRINT and INPUT -- it does have the WinGUI drivel -- but they've made it fairly unpainful(tm). After some fiddling I managed the classic "Hello world", with a trivial graphics display:

----------- code ------------- #COMPILE EXE #DIM ALL

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG

DIM a AS INTEGER DIM x& DIM y& DIM nWidth& DIM nHeight& DIM hWin???

x& =3D 100 y& =3D 100 nWidth& =3D 480 nHeight& =3D 320

a =3D1 DO a=3Da+1 LOOP WHILE a

Here's the entire PBCC version:

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG

PRINT "Hello, world!" SLEEP 2000

END FUNCTION

I don't want to waste my time dealing with the stupid Windows interface. #COMPILE EXE is the default... currently that's all it can do.

It is absurdly fast, compiling and running.

John