🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Wmxd9.24867$g9.70962@newsfeeds.bigpond.com>, "Vic Drastik" 
<1234567829@bigpond.com> wrote:
>"al c64" <mypost2001@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:5353262.0209030207.74c12893@posting.google.com...
>> Which version does a beginner go for?
>> First would anyone mind telling me why are there so many versions, it
>> seems really confusing.
[snip]

>XBasic is the best for beginners. It is elegant , fast , clean and fun to
>use. It has strong similarities with both C and VB so you will find it easy
>to change to either of these languages later if necessary. It has the speed
>of PowerBasic with the simplicity of QB. It is possible to hand-optimise the
>code to get speeds in excess of C. It is  flexible , allowing things to be
>done in more than one way. [...]
[snip]
>XB has good documentation , a large support group and it is freeware and
>open-source. [...]
>XB runs identically on both Linux and Windows(95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP ).
>http://www.xbasic.org

Okay, so XBasic is the bee's knees.  [Actually, I really like the idea 
of it running on either Windows or Linux at the user's choice.]  But 
my worry with many of these "out of the mainstream" programs is the 
potential bugs waiting to bite.

There is no such thing as bug free software (except my own trivial old 
FORTRAN programs of course ;-) so, to some undefined but non-zero 
extent, the reliability of programs depends on the user base.  Users 
are always the real testers of released software.  If experienced 
users are relatively few and far between, then bugs will remain 
unexposed for longer and remain a potential gotcha for the novices, 
the busy, and the unwary.

When you see some of the pretty subtle hardware and software bugs that 
are only found after large numbers of people have used a product, I do 
wonder about the pitfalls hiding in products such as XBasic, Liberty 
Basic, Power Basic, and the rest of them with a user base probably one 
or two orders of magnitude less than the mainstream products.

But I always was a worrier.  8-)


Cheers, Phred.

-- 
ppnerkDELETE@THISyahoo.com.INVALID