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Domain: realsoftware.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to realsoftware.com.

Comments · 55

  1. The new BASIC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Has Software Development Improved?

    Le BASIC nouveau est arrivee!

    http://www.realsoftware.com/

  2. Re:Nothing is a threat to Linux by Chris+Johnson · · Score: 3 · on Ballmer Claims Linux Is Top Threat To MS
    Actually there's another aspect to the first group, the Microsoft Zombie VB Developers. Yes, that approach is a lot easier than C programming, but guess what?

    MacOS has a comparable product- 'REALbasic'. This was originally a labor of love by a single very talented developer, Andrew Barry, designed to be as approachable and _more_ sensible than VB. When Andrew Barry got exhausted and resigned, other programmers were hired and they successfully took over the development- including bringing it over to OSX.

    Most Linux developers may not be into this style of development- it's more drag-and-drop of GUI components and dropping code snippets (even dragging them from the online reference!) into the relevant control events. However, the MZA types will love it- and even if you're not a zombie idiot the accessibility and rapidity of it all is very nice.

    I wrote an airfoil data generation program in this language the other night- it literally took only a night of work to produce a working program that did the following:

    • drag and drop 'text clipping' with starter foil data into a text area: pre-existing capability of object
    • parse the text clipping into arrays from 0-100 on top and bottom wing surfaces with interpolation between missing points
    • plot arrays on a canvas object (relatively simple)
    • smooth the foil w. sharp or blunt edges (imperfectly executed but OK)
    • tweak points up or down including a width factor affecting adjacent points- _way_ easy using interactions between existing controls- most related events got only a line of code or two
    • print out the arrays into the original text format to be dragged back out of the window- very easy again, minor workarounds for twitchy editfield implentation

    I daresay a lot of people think you can only do that on Windows with VB (never mind that VB is more complicated with a steeper initial curve than REALbasic- you can literally drag stuff into a window in RB and build the program without writing a line of code and it won't _do_ anything but all the controls will 'work' already)

    However, even if there's not going to be anything as approachable for Linux (i.e. more dumb-simple than C console apps), a competing product already exists on MacOS and compiles to trad MacOS and OSX apps- and Windows apps for that matter, though the work the programmers have to do to keep that end afloat is 10X as much work as they have to do for the MacOS side, all the bugfix reports are invariably _loaded_ with 'Win' bugs that were fixed or worked around.

    Anyhow- not even VB is a permanent safe haven for MS. Comparable products exist.

    (BTW- 'the red pen'? Did you by any chance attend the Cambridge School of Weston? If so, you knew me as 'The Poet')

  3. Re:"low-end" configuration by Arkham · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Challenges Linux community
    Hmm, let's see. Here are a few features of Python:

    • dynamic, runs as compiled or intepreted code
    • Code runs on every platform including Windows 3.1/CE/95/98/NT3.x/NT4.x, MacOS, Solaris, AIX, Linux, FreeBSD, BeOS, Amiga, DOS, IRIX, SCO, MacOSX Server, and many, many more. Often the code will move from one machine type to another and run without a single line of code modification.
    • Open Source -- much like Linux but with Guido van Rossum at the helm instead of Linus.
    • Late binding -- so cool! Try that with VB, or even Visual C++!
    • Phenominal object model including namespace mangling/preservation, multiple inheiritance, dynamic variable typing, etc.
    • Free modules for native access to PostgreSQL, MySQL, DBM, Oracle, and a dozen other databases.
    • Native and cross-platform GUI RAD tools, including Tkinter.
    • Free CORBA-compliant ORB in fnorb. Has hooks for the Red Hat C++ orb also.
    • Stubbing for access to native libraries written in C, C++, Java, and most other languages.

    I could go on, but why? VB is a fine programming tool for RAD GUI development. I use a similar tool, RealBasic, to develop GUI apps on the Mac. But VB/VBScript is not as powerful as Python by a long shot. I am not a Perl expert, but I'd bet that someone who is more knowledgable than I in it could make a similar argument for that language.

  4. REALbasic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Ask Slashdot: Software for Youngsters?
    http://www.realsoftware.com/

    This is a Macintosh only product but It handles some things much better than Visual Basic.

    --robhall

  5. use REALbasic instead (Mac, PC, PalmOS, Linux?) by chexc · · Score: 1 · on Visual Basic book author gives up the language

    REALbasic is far better than VB in every respect (better interface, more robust, object oriented). Its certainly not designed by a focus group, but by one person. And version 2, out soon, will compile for Window, Mac and even Palm Pilot!. (no, you don't have to buy three versions) And its easy to extend the language. And it can import VB projects. Incidently, the option to have REALbasic compile for Linux has been hotly debated on the User Group mailing list ....