Request to Paul

[Paul Squires]

Okay, I went down another rabbit hole because I am able to use .NET with my broker's trading platform, so, I found a cross-platform solution that looks very promising and I'd just have to change my business logic from C++ to C#.

Anyway, it is worth a look for a couple of days to see if it will do the job.

https://avaloniaui.net/

[Paul Squires]

....now I remember why I hated .NET and C# so much. It is so convoluted. Maybe for large enterprises and teams it is a good environment but for me I just do not like it. Granted, it does seem a lot faster than the earlier versions of .NET that I experienced years ago.

On the other hand, I downloaded wxWidgets https://www.wxwidgets.org/ and installed CMake and watched one YouTube video and now I already have a sample program working on Windows and Linux. Mac is my next test. I may have to buy a Mac if I can not get it working in a virtual machine. If it works on Mac as easily as it has on Windows and Linux then I will use WxWidgets rather than Qt. The wxWidgets syntax and concepts are very similar to my Win32 api experience.

[Paul Squires]

Just to wrap up this cross platform journey of mine....

I was able to install Mac OS Sonoma in a virtual machine and create and run a wxWidgets demo project.

So now I am able to create the same C++ wxWidgets based project on Windows, Linux and Mac.

Next step is to re-write my Win32API based project into wxWidgets.

[Joerg B.]

Hello Paul

I can understand your frustration with .Net, c# etc.
MS is very generous when it comes to making its products available to students. To that extent, most of them learn on that basis, and because they have had no other experience, they stick with it.

Installing MacOS via a VM is a little complicated, but doable. MacOS even runs natively on my old notebook.

I now own the latest 27" iMac with an I9 10core, 128 GB RAM, 8 GB graphics card and a 1 TB SSD.
It was much easier to install my Windows 11 license under UTM on the iMac. I hardly use my other old PS anymore.

The way I see it, you're getting closer to your goals step by step.
I think you need to stay on the ball. I'm curious.

After that, you may have a little more time to devote to the open questions about WinFBE in the forums. 

[Paul Squires]

After that, you may have a little more time to devote to the open questions about WinFBE in the forums. 

LOL, yes, I'll get back to FB programming and WinFBE once I get this project finished. It is nice to learn new languages and tools across multiple operating systems because it gives me a better overall appreciation for the different technologies. This has been a nice little diversion that is helping to keep me interested and excited about programming.

[Klaas Holland]

Hi Paul,

I do my Cross Platform programming in Xojo nowadays.
It is the Basic way of programming.
You should take a look at it and give your comment if you wish.

I still appreciate your help in all the FireFly years.

Thanks,
Klaas Holland.

[Paul Squires]

Thanks Klaas!

I have had several people mention Xojo over the years and have always heard good things about it. For my use case, I already have a working Windows program written in C++ so using wxWidgets I can re-use just about all of my existing C++ code and will only have to implement the GUI. That is a huge time saver.

I also require a non-commercial platform because my project is open source and should be available for people that can compile it using free software. It looks like Xojo is $400 with 1 year upgrades. wxWidgets is free and open source.

FireFy certainly made a difference to a lot of PowerBasic programmers. I still get emails about FireFly from people all these years later. Feels good.

[Ian Vincent]

Paul, Firefly was, and still is the greatest productivity tool ever created for PowerBasic.
It was a sad day when you move on to other things.

[Paul Squires]

Thanks Ian, it was unfortunate that PB never produced a 64 bit version or even some general updates after Bob's passing.

FireFly had a lot of old code that needed to be re-written and with PB not showing any progress then I made the jump to FreeBasic. The old PB forums seem to only have a handful of regular posters remaining there.

I no longer have any of my programs in PowerBasic. All of the daily programs that I use are now written in either FreeBasic or C++.

[Ian Vincent]

Paul, I understand your need to move on from PB.
I would move to FreeBasic too if the licensing was clearer.
At least with PB, I know that what I write is mine, I can sell it, and I am not obliged to release the source code.
With FreeBasic it seems to be 'sometimes, always, perhaps, maybe, not sure'.