As you probably know, with my Tommelise reprap system I use Visual Basic .NET for the PC-side software and Oshonsoft Basic for the machine-side firmware. I do that because the learning curve to get into BASIC is not nearly so steep as that for Java and now Python (mind, Python is a LOT easier to get into than Java).

The problem with the way I've been doing things is that I don't have a clear cross-platform capability on the PC side. A few days ago I ran across a cross-platform BASIC compiler called REALBasic.

[www.realsoftware.com]

It does Linux, Windows and OS X. Single platform personal editions (no database connectivity or web sockets, which is no big deal. for this sort of work, anyway) costs $100 (academic license is $70). When you write code for one platform you can recompile it for another platform without changes. A multiplatform compiler runs $500 (I frankly can't see the point of buying one of those, since you can only put it on a single machine, which rather defeats the whole purpose if you want to qualify your code on several different os's. Better to buy personal editions for the different os's that being considerably cheaper).

Anyhow, in the next months I will be looking about getting out from under Microsoft visual studio in that manner. Windows SP3 has really pissed me off. It's made my printer print from right to left and when I confronted Microsoft about that, they refused to take responsibility. I've decided that Balmer has lost his everloving mind and I don't work with crazy people.)

If you don't mind an interpreted Basic try;
[sourceforge.net]

No sign of Micro$oft there...

If you don't mind an interpreted version of Basic, try;
[sourceforge.net]

No sign of Micro$soft there...

If you felt really brave, you could always look at Mono, which might possibly support visual basic.net.

For my employers, visual studio is the killer app of windows... no-one else seems to make a decent IDE. Eclipse has proven to be adequate for java, but somewhat lacking for everything else. It is a shame that the commercial IDE market has given up... no-one seems to want to compete against VS or eclipse, and I've never been really happy with any large and complex open-source app. Ho hum.

Ru Wrote:
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> If you felt really brave, you could always look at
> Mono, which might possibly support visual
> basic.net.
>
It supports VB.NET just fine.

Quote

It supports VB.NET just fine.

I am pleasantly surprised

I have a client in the software business that is porting all their VS.NET apps over to Linux servers using Mono after Microsoft got predatory with their Windows Server pricing a while back. Virtually their whole code base is in one or another flavour of VS.NET. They say that it now scales pretty well. That was an issue about six months back.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2008 10:21AM by Forrest Higgs.

Forrest - I have used REALBasic for several years. It is ok as a multiplatform basic the only problem that I have is the upgrades you have to pay for every 6 months to stay up to date.

Bob

---

Bob Teeter
"What Box?"

bobt Wrote:
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>
> the only problem
> that I have is the upgrades you have to pay for
> every 6 months to stay up to date.
>
Ah! That's a VERY valuable heads-up! Thanks, Bob!