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Jon Westfall

10-19-2005, 02:27 PM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.basic4ppc.com' target='_blank'>http://www.basic4ppc.com</a><br /><br /></div><i>"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."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall-20051019-basic4ppc.gif" /><br /><br />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 ;)

Snail

10-19-2005, 05:01 PM

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!

Typhoon

10-19-2005, 08:21 PM

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?

sperhacs

10-19-2005, 09:56 PM

Too bad it doesn't work with access databases :cry:

Airscanner

10-20-2005, 04:18 PM

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

Typhoon

10-20-2005, 07:57 PM

PPCRules

10-24-2005, 05:12 PM

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/ "

ArchiMark

10-25-2005, 04:15 AM

Great little review, PPCRules!

Do you (or anyone else...) have any thoughts on how this compares to NSBasic??

Thanks,

Mark

PPCRules

10-25-2005, 04:22 PM

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.

ArchiMark

10-25-2005, 07:10 PM

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

PPCRules

10-31-2005, 09:59 PM

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.
I can confirm it does NOT work on Dell X51v; can't tell if it's WM5 (probably), or something else like VGA or another hardware issue.

PPCRules

01-03-2006, 04:10 PM

Version 2.0 has been released, with a LOT of new stuff. Windows Mobile 5.0 is supported, also a whole lot of new features have been added. I have not had a chance to test it out yet on WM5; I do not yet know how it deals with VGA and portrait/landscape switching.

Give this a whirl, if you haven't done so. There are some syntax changes in version 2.0, so just figure you are coming in at a good time by starting with this new version. The desktop editor is very capable and handy for whipping something together quickly. Hint: Make something up on the desktop, and when it's working nicely, then install the trial app on the PPC.

(Here's a secret: I ran version 1.0 on WM2003 (first edition) with .Net CF RTM, so don't let the 'sp2' "requirement" keep you from tying this (although version 2.0 might not work). Just don't expect support if you have problems.)

PPCRules

01-03-2006, 07:38 PM

... I do not yet know how it deals with VGA and portrait/landscape switching.
VGA works good and looks great! Apps work in landscape mode but there are certain screen artifacts left on the screen from areas not used by landscape (probably the default WM5 handling of switching a portrait-coded app to landscape).

SURFXP

06-07-2006, 07:29 PM

Does anyone knows if Basic4ppc can access and parse text files?
I need to build an application that searches for specific words in text files.

PPCRules

08-22-2006, 02:33 PM

Does anyone knows if Basic4ppc can access and parse text files?
I need to build an application that searches for specific words in text files.
Check the Basic4PPC.com website. You can probably find a program there that could serve as an example. Also, read and ask on the "yahoo group" site.

PPCRules

08-22-2006, 02:41 PM

Just want to add that version 3.0 is out now, with many enhancements, including being able to compile to standalone .EXEs. This make for a very handy system to whip up an application and easily distribute it. Lots of other goodies, too. Check it out.

System can now also compile to a standalone desktop-Windows executable.