10-19-2005, 02:27 PM
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Executive Editor, Android Thoughts
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,233
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Back To BASIC... Basic4ppc Available
"Basic4ppc is a programming language based on "Basic" with many enhancements including visual designer, events, forms, controls and many more. With Basic4ppc you can develop and distribute (royalty free) your own Pocket PC applications."
With the simple applications programmer in mind, Basic4ppc is available for $17.99, a very economical price in (IMHO) a very highpriced field. Now all we need is a decent Gorillas port and I'd be happy 
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Dr. Jon Westfall, MCSE, MS-MVP
Executive Editor - Android Thoughts
News Editor - Windows Phone Thoughts
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10-19-2005, 05:01 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 66
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Wow... Gorillas! That brings back some memories (and tells me what age group you're in Jon!).
I've been wanting to get back to tinkering in BASIC for a while now - looks like the perfect excuse!
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10-19-2005, 08:21 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 794
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lol Gorillas, yea, I remember too. Any benchmarks? If the developer is reading this, I would say that I would love to see some benchmarks, comparing it to C/C++, C#/.NET languages.
And does it develope executables?
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10-19-2005, 09:56 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 6
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Too bad it doesn't work with access databases :cry:
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10-20-2005, 04:18 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 73
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I know there are some free Apple II emulators for Pocket PC, and I've found just about every game ever made ported to a ROM. I'm sure BASIC would run fine on the emulators (everything else does). For those who are nostalgic, or just masochistic, boot up a nearly-perfect Apple II emulation on your Pocket PC for free!
Brad
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10-20-2005, 07:57 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 794
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Airscanner
I know there are some free Apple II emulators for Pocket PC, and I've found just about every game ever made ported to a ROM. I'm sure BASIC would run fine on the emulators (everything else does). For those who are nostalgic, or just masochistic, boot up a nearly-perfect Apple II emulation on your Pocket PC for free!
Brad
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Yea, that's true.
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10-24-2005, 05:12 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 481
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Now this is some pretty cool stuff! You gottta try it.
There seems to be no other actual user report, so here's a mini review:
I had a reasonably useful app put together in a couple hours. No big problems; no crashes. It just worked. I like that. A couple minor editor bugs but they don't get in the way too much. ["Desktop" update released yesterday; they may be fixed already.]
As a VB6 developer, things were very familiar to me. Basic functionality is all there, although many would probably run into limitations after a few apps or a couple months on a big app. I don't think there is any support for integrating with other PPC apps, and nothing for bluetooth or WiFi connectivity. For a hobbyist, however, this is the greatest thing I've seen in handheld app development on any platform. Plus at a price even a hobbyist can justify.
The desktop editor is very handy, and fully runs your app on the PC, but having on-device editing available completes the package nicely. I did miss the desktop editor's color picker when adjusting things on the device, though. The help files are very helpful.
Don't let the "Runner" program scare you. It's not a multi-megabyte proprietary runtime module. It is a small (proprietary) module that probably just gets that app going and closes it out. Your apps are (probably) using the .NET compact framework code.
No word on WM5.0 compatibility (I'm on 2003FE). There seems to be no support for landscape or screen resolutions other than standard QVGA.
The 10-day trial seems very short for someone to get the hang of things if just spending their spare time on it. A person needs to visualize the app's value for themself before they are ready to buy it. But other than the time limit, and not being able to compile apps, the trial is very complete.
To save you some time, here's a freeware app to check your .NET Compact Framework version "from RTM to SP3 (including SP2 Re-release). ... http://www.kasuei.com/netcfversion/ "
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10-25-2005, 04:15 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 32
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Great little review, PPCRules!
Do you (or anyone else...) have any thoughts on how this compares to NSBasic??
Thanks,
Mark
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Silicon Valley Digerati
HTC Advantage X7501/WM6.1 AP4 /Fujitsu P1610 /MacBook C2D
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10-25-2005, 04:22 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 481
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Quick thoughts:
Price is a lot different.
NSBasic is a full featured development system; probably supports all the things I note that Basic4ppc does not [yet] support, and then some.
As such, learning curve for NSBasic is going to be much greater.
If you are developing serious, distributed apps, you'd want to use NSBasic; in this case, you can afford to invest the money and time.
If you primarily want to have fun, and make some useful apps for yourself and to share with others, give Basic4ppc a try. Just plan your 10 days so you can really get to see what it does.
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10-25-2005, 07:10 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 32
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Thanks for clarifying, PPCRules!
Appreciate your thoughts...
Keep debating whether to go down the Basic road (with either NSB or Basic4PPC..) or bite the bullet and use either PGCC or WinCE.net....
As I'm a real programming noob (read a few books and fiddled a bit..) it's hard to decide what makes more sense given my limited amount of time to do this...Although it seems to make sense practically speaking to use some variant of Basic....
:?
Thanks,
Mark
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Silicon Valley Digerati
HTC Advantage X7501/WM6.1 AP4 /Fujitsu P1610 /MacBook C2D
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Linear Mode
