🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Sep8.224814.12128@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> rdt154k@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr N Benci) writes:


>I am about to invest some money in a compiled basic. The only criteria is
>that it must be closely compatible to Quick Basic for the PC. Hisoft BASIC 2
>is advertised to be compatible to Quick Basic. Is anyone using this BASIC
>and if so, could you provide some useful comments, either good bad or ugly.
>Any comments would be most appreciated, as I would like to know more about 
>it before I send my money to Hisoft.

>Thanks in advance.

  Before you buy, I suggest you look into True Basic.  I believe they
have a translation program to convert code to and from Quick Basic, but
I'm not sure. If you are interested, I will send you the contacts.
-DmG Dan Goldman, Ames, Iowa, USA

I have an Amiga, not an Atari, but my experience may be similar. a couple o
years ago I bought the HiSoft compiler and the True BASIC compiler for the
Amiga. neither one was great, but the HiSoft was compatible with QuickBASIC
3.? (not the 4.x that was out at the time). True BASIC for the Amiga was
not very close to QuickBASIC, and the Amiga version of that time came with
nothing that could translate.

In some ways, the Atari is closer to a PC than the Amiga, so your situation
might be better, but be careful. I had a fairly complex (about 2k lines)
non-graphical QuickBASIC 4.0 program that I wanted to run on the Amiga,
I put the project on hold because it would been practically impossible
with HiSoft, and very tedious with TrueBASIC.

If you havn't made use of the recursive calls and other nice features of
4.0+, or HiSoft has a 4.0+ compatible version, you might be in good shape.

I hope my info is not totally out of date, it has been a while...


-- 
Phil Nelson . pnelson@tymix.Tymnet.COM . San Jose, CA, USA . 408-922-7508

  "Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible."

In article <2480@tymix.Tymnet.COM> pnelson@cobra.Tymnet.COM (Phil Nelson) writes:
> In some ways, the Atari is closer to a PC than the Amiga, so your situation
> might be better, but be careful. I had a fairly complex (about 2k lines)
> non-graphical QuickBASIC 4.0 program that I wanted to run on the Amiga,
> I put the project on hold because it would been practically impossible
> with HiSoft, and very tedious with TrueBASIC.

Well... Nothing is impossible with the Hisoft compiler on the Amiga. I have
made Application Windows-servers and used the functions in the new OS. If
Hisoft lacks some features, they can easily be coded by using system library
calls.

But porting isn't easy when you do it first time. I first make the programs
on the Amiga and then port it to the PC. Boy, did I disappoint the first time
when I hit the damned string space and segment limits. Anyway, when you have
done it once or twice, it will be easy. I ported my latest 12000 lines program
from Amiga to PC in one week.

When posting from PC to Amiga, the most problematic areas are:

	- ISAM - You have to make own database handling. (So what ? It only
	  takes a couple of days and is faster)

	- recods and other "high level" variable handling. (Well...They can
	  be simulated wth variable names, don't they ?)

	- character-graphics. (You should use the graphics capabilities of
	  the Amiga or you program is from the stone-age)

And from Amiga to PC:

	- heavy string space useage. (Amiga gives you Megs of memory, PC only
	  about 64K)

	- huge SUBs or FUNCTIONs that may be too big for BC.

	- graphics. (Face it... QB and BC7 are mainly character based)

	- multiple windows, menus (Maybe VB4DOS have them, otherways you have
	  to simulate them)

	- multitasking, heavy calling of system functions, AREXX and all the
	  other goodies of the Amiga...

   If you havn't made use of the recursive calls and other nice features of
   4.0+, or HiSoft has a 4.0+ compatible version, you might be in good shape.

Recursion works with Hisoft.

   I hope my info is not totally out of date, it has been a while...

I'm currently waiting for an early beta of Hisoft Basic II.... drooling :-)

/robin