🚀 go-pugleaf

 Since we have a Micro$oft representative monitoring this group, I
 was wondering how much could be revealed about VisualBASIC for DOS.
 The PCWeek article said it was out in Beta form with a commerical
 release by the "end of the year."

 My interests and concerns are these:
   1) Is it a replacement for QuickBASIC?  Is QB offically dead except
      for that interpreter that comes with MS-DOS?
   2) The article mentions a "Professional" version of VB for DOS; will
      this supplant PDS?
   3) Will VB_D be compatible?  I have a tidy investment in external
      libraries for QB, the upgrade costs will kill me.
   4) Will it be an "EXE hog" like QB or has Micro$oft done its homework
      and copied Cresent's PDQ?

 What really irks me, is the way Micro$oft has handled its QB users.  As
 released in 1988 QB 4.5 was a great product and I make no apologies to
 anyone when I mention that I learned to program with it.  QB had an
 evolutionary path that _could_ have kept up with Turbo Pascal.  Four
 years later, everyone that I learned QB with has moved on to TP, not
 because it is so superior but because it continued evolutionary growth!

 So along comes PDS 7.1 and VisualBASIC for Windows; PDS was too expensive
 for what you got and VB, well, it was for Windows (an extremly expensive
 avenue to follow).  So I wait... Lo and behold, along comes an offer to
 upgrade to PDS 7.1 for $99, but I smelled a rat and my instincts may be
 right with this announcement for VB_D.

 Money might come easy for Mr. Gates and Co., but I have to watch my dimes.
 All I wanted was granular libraries and pointer data types!

 Greg Harber                               z_harbergt@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
 Stephen F. Austin State University        "Heart of the Pine Smog"
 " If you lie to a computer, it will get you"   Perry Farrar