Re: Banned from the PowerBASIC forum

On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:40:28 -0000, Frank Cox <invalid@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

>> By the way you still didn't provide proof of "have been promising 'real
>> soon now' for ten years". Because there isn't any. All there is, is one
>> comment of a then employee about ten years ago, who obviously was being
>> over enthusiastic at a very hectic moment in time because of the Comdex
>> back then. It is common knowledge that such a thing has never happened
>> again, so it's safe to assume that this single comment was made out of
>> line.
>
>Well, there was an announcement made at Comdex and there was that 
>employees message.

As I understand it, that was one and the same, wasn't it?

>There was this posting from Bob Zale on his website, stating "We offer 
>compilers for DOS and Windows today. Linux is coming soon, and other 
>platforms will follow." 
http://web.archive.org/web/20030602170609/http://
>powerbasic.com/aboutpb.asp

"An Introduction to PowerBASIC"

No wonder I never saw that, I got past the introductory level long
before that page was even created ;-)

I've been active on the forums for a number of years though. Nowadays
my time is too limited to spend much time there, but it's still a
great resource with a wonderful bunch of people. On these forums a lot
of people communicate amongst themselves, but also with PowerBASIC
staff. And on these forums I've never seen a single promise by staff
of "Linux coming real soon now".

Those forums, and these newsgroups of course, are the places where
these promises would have been made for almost ten years, if they had
existed. Not an introductory web page that nobody was aware of until
someone with an axe to grind went searching in the archives.

>Was Bob Zale merely an over-enthusiastic employee who was also speaking 
>out of turn?  Note that wasn't just a message on his site, it formed part

>of his "about" writeup that tells you what PowerBASIC is.

Well, ultimately he's the one who knows best when a Linux version
might become available. I'd have to speculate as to why that line was
on this page for some time, but I don't think that's going to add much
here.

>There's probably more, but that should be enough to get the point across.
>
>> I hope you're willing to acknowledge this fact, because the way I look
>> at this conflict, that's probably the only way it'll ever have a chance
>> of getting resolved.
>
>So, having seen the above, would you care to reconsider your comment?

As you've seen above, my opinion is still that there has never been a
constant policy of promising a Linux version. In the interactions that
I have witnessed over the years, the most anybody ever got was "we're
working on it". You have one static page from the past that I expect
experienced programmers never even looked at. You found it afterwards.

I'm sorry, but it didn't change my point of view on this matter.

In conclusion I can say that I see no way of getting your and
PowerBASIC's viewpoints closer together. So be it.

-- 
Peter Manders.

"640 HP ought to be enough for anybody."