No programming... This became dull...

[DrV]

What's the point of writing software to work on ancient computers? I haven't seen a working 286 in ages, and new PCs are so cheap it's not even funny (a decent PC from WalMart - 1.5 GHz Sempron with 128 MB RAM and 40 GB hdd - is less than $200). Limiting yourself to 15-year-old technology is just plain strange given the availability of much more powerful equipment that is widely available. If you really want to code for old hardware, I don't think you'll find many similar-minded people here. Someday your 286 will break and you won't be able to replace it, and then what? Emulate your 286 with DOSBox so you can run your 'retro' programs on a new PC? Sure, being able to pull that last bit of performance out of limited hardware is fun and exciting for a while, but those skills become obsolete once computers improve to the point that they can run your 'optimized for 286' programs at thousands of times faster speeds than originally by emulating the entire PC, processor and all, in software...

Nobody in his right mind will start anything new with QB now that FreeBASIC is available. Why limit your programs to an OS that is dying a rapid and exponentially increasing death? 64-bit processors don't even have 16-bit emulation anymore, and that's what 16-bit has been - emulation - ever since the 386. The 386 is designed to run 32-bit programs, and it was released two decades ago. Maybe it's time to join the real world - or else join those weird demosceners who chain themselves to walls and write demos for outmoded hardware.

I don't want this to sound like an attack - but I just want to let you know that you are painting yourself into a corner.

[SBM Productions]

seen the nightlife engine demo I coded in qb with UGL? almost no one could run it because of EMS. I'm too lazy to learn C. So I go to fb.

[Spotted Cheetah]

Hey! Stop that i become outdated! As i said i develop in C for Windows, 32bit (or 64bit - i think it would compile well - there is not too much difference i think, for example there is no segmentation or such in 32bit) and why i not use FreeBasic is especially that i think it SERIOUSLY! But it is good to occasionally switch back to that good old simple stuff... If everything could be emulated well, of course i would compile my retro for modern machines, but without it better to work with the good old original hardware (or complete emulation like DOSBox).

So if you attack, i counter with that FreeBasic will NEVER reach the quality and speed of C programs! Now what is your next step? You are the outdated still messing with Basic

What made me using Basic for retro is that we talked about it there so it was not just my hobby. That made me not switching to C in retro programming. Now (since far away in the past) i need something stable and efficient so i use C. Of course if FreeBasic overtakes the quality of C, i will switch, but i wonder when it will happen :lol:

[marzecTM]

somewhere above you claimed you switched back from c++ to c because of the "class mess". you are strange...

[Deleter]

maybe everyone is so busy coding that they don't have time to post here.

[rpgfan3233]

somewhere above you claimed you switched back from c++ to c because of the "class mess". you are strange...

I agree (sort of). Classes can be useful, if you know how to implement them to do what you want. Depending on what you want, it may turn out to be a mess though!

[matt2jones]

maybe everyone is so busy coding that they don't have time to post here.

Thats actually the way it is with me at the moment, I'm having my most productive time ever, and I find if I go to the internet to boast about my projects I have less time to work on them:

Currently:

One finished miniRPG waiting to be released (ye saw the demo a few months ago)

One almost finished miniRPG (final beta test (fingers crossed))

One 3/4's done RPG (filling in monster statistics and need to do final cutscene)

One Qb Resident Evil engine I discovered, allot more advanced then I thought I want to release.

A remake Worms I clone I made over the summer that needs about 4-5 more good days of coding to complete. - Freebasic

And I'm currently moving in leaps and bounds (for me anyway) with texture mapping Raycasters and implimenting sprites, and floormaps (Ie. I've gotten all of those to work), so I could throw together a cheap ass fps by september.

This is seriously the best part of my 7 year coding life.

If you want a new release, do it yourself :bounce:

matt

[Dr_Davenstein]

Here's some HUMUNGOUS screenshots from one of my projects. :lol:

[relsoft]

Aww. You changed the gun; *) Nice new screenies....

Here's something new from me:


http://rel.betterwebber.com/junk.php?id=47
Ascaris (An undulating fake tunnel)

[Spotted Cheetah]

Looks good!

C++ and classes: i found them certainly useful at first, but later when i had 180Kb of source they became annoying... For example i needed a function ALONE but it was in a class. So the whole class needed to be allocated yet again for that single function or to rewrite the function outside the class. So it is better to work with C...

Graph_Get(...);
Graph_Put(...);
Graph_Box(...);
Mouse_Status(...);
...

This scheme looks clean, and it looks like being object - oriented. But when i need i can use any function alone not needing to bother the others or allocate memory. This is more efficient.


Good to see that something is going

For me recently the followings were developed:


My home page (Still working on it, PHP, MySQL - so it is programming )

QBasic FM Music player (Finished 2 weeks before)

"QBasic" Sprite editor (The messed up C++ thing: now i am using it as "part supply")

Panthera - in plain C with the parts taken and converted from the sprite editor.

(And occasionally planning a new PCX compression algorithm)