Forward Pass RAD Tool - Now Free

[Janak Parekh]

http://www.forwardpass.com/

Forward Pass is a scripting/development tool for Pocket PCs. You can design forms on the device itself, and can write out scripts using VBScript and JScript.



Last week, the company decided to stop selling the product, but instead of just shelving it like many companies do, they decided to give it to the community!

"We regret to announce that we are discontinuing sales of Forward Pass for Pocket PC. For a number of reasons, and after much discussion, we have decided that is necessary for us to concentrate on other parts of our business. Effective immediately, the product will no longer be sold. Instead, we will make it available as freeware. We will continue to support existing users of the product through at least August of this year."

It's sad to hear that it won't be an officially-supported channel for the developers that need it, but if you're a hobbyist looking to get your feet wet in a development solution, free can't hurt. 8)

[Janak Parekh]

http://www.forwardpass.com/

Forward Pass is a scripting/development tool for Pocket PCs. You can design forms on the device itself, and can write out scripts using VBScript and JScript.



Last week, the company decided to stop selling the product, but instead of just shelving it like many companies do, they decided to give it to the community!

"We regret to announce that we are discontinuing sales of Forward Pass for Pocket PC. For a number of reasons, and after much discussion, we have decided that is necessary for us to concentrate on other parts of our business. Effective immediately, the product will no longer be sold. Instead, we will make it available as freeware. We will continue to support existing users of the product through at least August of this year."

It's sad to hear that it won't be an officially-supported channel for the developers that need it, but if you're a hobbyist looking to get your feet wet in a development solution, free can't hurt. 8)

[PPCRules]

This is a really good product. I bought it last year, and have been quite impressed by how developed it is, realizing the sales volume must be quite low. It had very little visibility (no mention on PPCT when I checked last year); I stumbled across it on Handango, and couldn't really find any user reports on it before buying.

At the new price, it's a must try for anyone who has wanted to dabble, or more, in application development on the PocketPC. Who knows, maybe them stopping development and support, and offering it free, could be a great thing for the PPC community (at least, maybe some price pressure for the other development options).

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by PPCRules

It had very little visibility (no mention on PPCT when I checked last year)

If developers or others don't submit it, we can't post on it - it's impossible to keep up with every single application that is released. :wink:

[PPCRules]

Sorry, Jason, I didn't mean it that way (maybe I shouldn't have done that underline). It's just that out of all the people who frequent the site, no one had made any mention of it. After using it myself, I was going to mention it to Andy, but I never got around to it.

[jasonc]

Whoohoo! I've been wanting to get my hands on this application for some time now. I downloaded the trial version and created several applications with it until my trial ended, but I could never bring myself to dish out the dough for it. Now I don't have to! It's just a shame that they're not going to support it.

It would be nice if they would allow someone else to continue to develop and support it.

Jason

[cyclwestks]

I had purchased this when it was $39 about a year ago, & when I seen they'd changed it to freeware, it sounded like a really good deal to do some hobby developing anyway. In the yahoo group many are hoping they'll turn it over to open source.

[Robb Bates]

Alright!

I've been looking for a quick and dirty programming package. Someone mentioned this to me in a previous thread and I almost bought it last week. But now I won't have to.

This is one thing that I think EVERY computer should have built in. Some kind of quick programming ability. That's why I always liked the old school 8 bit computers. C=64, Atari 800 and the TS1000. Ah, the good old days!

Robb

[Ripper014]

Ok.. now I have question is there a Reference Manual for this product other than the on-line one... I would like to have something I might be able to download and printout...

Something like a pdf or doc file...

[Robb Bates]

Perhaps we can beg them to support it for just a while longer until they can get it wrapped up nicely for the community.

Or maybe they would be kind enough to pass the source code on to someone.

Here's an HTML version that someone can pull off and package.

Robb

[Busdriver]

If you go to the ForwardPass Yahoo group page and click on ForwardPass files you can download the manual and install it on your PPC. But it will still be in HTML format.