[HN Gopher] SpiderBasic
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SpiderBasic
Author : shakna
Score : 55 points
Date : 2024-12-03 09:42 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.spiderbasic.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.spiderbasic.com)
| ghjfrdghibt wrote:
| I'm not sure what this is, but having been forced to learn VBA
| related to Access databases, I've been looking for a similarly
| integrated solution that's a little more robust. I have yet to
| find one.
| peutetre wrote:
| You could use C#: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-
| us/visualstudio/data-tools/co...
| ghjfrdghibt wrote:
| I would like to move to a better backend and front end. Local
| first would be good over a database server. I've been looking
| at flutter and sqlite but I've little experience here and am
| unsure about a multi user context.
|
| Access whilst old is a good technology when used correctly
| within its capabilities.
| viraptor wrote:
| Have you seen Grist? https://www.getgrist.com/ You can
| write custom code against those databases too.
| ndsipa_pomu wrote:
| https://zetcode.com/db/sqlitevb/
| doo_daa wrote:
| Retool.com is the closest thing I have found to the experience
| of building apps with Access
| caseyy wrote:
| Wow, we are compiling BASIC to JavaScript and which is meant to
| run in browsers like Electron I assume. Now someone just needs to
| write Electron in BASIC to close the loop!
|
| Reminds me of TranslationParty. Can we find the equilibrium
| between JavaScript and BASIC? :)
| mdp2021 wrote:
| Jokes aside, if you wanted to develop native applications
| within that framework (BASIC as implemented by Frederic
| Laboureur) you would use PureBasic (for Windows, Linux, Mac,
| Raspberry PI and, in a discontinued version I believe, Amiga).
| PureBasic compiled to FASM (then standard executable) up to
| recently - after Apple switched to ARM, a decision was made to
| compile to C. (It goes without saying that coding in PureBasic
| can be much faster than coding in C - that is the purpose.) Use
| of native libraries is direct.
|
| SpiderBasic was born, I guess, to use that framework on mobile
| devices - which can use Web based applications, if one does not
| want to invest the time to go native and can bear with the
| limitations web security imposes.
|
| I.e., rephrasing: Fred and his team had this product which
| worked on all main desktop platform, and at some point mobile
| environment became prominent: they must have thought, either we
| invent a way to compile to native Android and iOS, main
| application code and libraries, or we exploit the consolidated
| way of compiling into web apps. So PureBasic got flanked by
| SpiderBasic.
| cplat wrote:
| I'm familiar with PureBasic (although didn't use it a lot). I got
| introduced to it in the 2000s (2000-2007 or something), along
| with DarkBasic, GameMaker, and the likes.
|
| In today's era, however, I have not yet found a need to use a
| proprietary language.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| PureBasic for Windows and Linux was released in 2000 (the Mac
| version is probably a little more recent, that for Amiga a bit
| older, and the latest for Raspberry PI is a few years old); a
| community got active in 2001.
|
| > _In today 's era_
|
| In today's era it's still priceless to have a tool that *
| compiles to a native machine code executable; * is lean and
| fast - you can get results quickly and from a light efficient
| interface; * does pretty much anything (and in case you are
| missing anything in the native libraries, you can interface
| with external C libraries)...
|
| And (subjectively) can be a real pleasure to use.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| That's true, but still almost no one wants to pay for that
| pleasure. People rather suffer day after day to save 50
| bucks. Not saying purebasic is solid as I have never used it,
| but there are definitely times when I long back to the times
| when I could pay a few 100$ and get something that was
| batteries included and vetted without the breaking churn of
| people just dumping libraries online and hoping for the best.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| Please note that there are free versions, with code size as
| a limitation. One can test if it is worth it, maybe upgrade
| if the need arises for bigger projects:
|
| https://www.purebasic.com/download.php
|
| https://www.spiderbasic.com/download.php
| cplat wrote:
| Yes, which is why the rest of my sentence is important. I
| said, "I haven't found a need to use a proprietary language."
| I didn't claim that one will never be needed by anyone. :-)
| d3VwsX wrote:
| You could use Godot (has a nice set of GUI widgets in
| addition to the game-specific stuff) or Lazarus (Free Pascal
| IDE) for instance. I did not use Lazarus much, but Free
| Pascal as a compiler and the language is nice and stable and
| supports a long list of platforms, generating native code
| (including cross-compiling between many different pairs of
| platforms).
|
| https://www.lazarus-ide.org/
| fuzztester wrote:
| it looks like spiderbasic is from the same company as
| purebasic.
|
| there is a link at the bottom of the purebasic web site to the
| spiderbasic web site:
|
| https://www.purebasic.com
|
| mdp2021's comment also indicates that:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42349737
| cplat wrote:
| Yes, I'm aware, which is why it reminded me of PureBasic with
| which I'm more familiar. :-)
| joshstrange wrote:
| I have no clue who this is for but the red flags are popping up
| all over the place for me.
|
| First page is incredibly flowery about what it is, to the point I
| still have no freaking clue what this is. Is it JS? Is it BASIC?
| Not clear at all.
|
| Then I clicked the menu to see the docs and was surprised to see
| a "Pricing" tab "Uh, what? A paid language/transpiler? Immediate
| no".
|
| I started looking for docs and couldn't find them, finally found
| them linked at the bottom of the Support page... Obviously that's
| where it'd be...
|
| Lastly the docs are hot garbage. A page of links to single pages
| without navigation to the rest of the docs. What year is it? Oh
| and "Getting Started"? Yeah, it talks about their custom IDE, and
| that's the final nail in the coffin (that was already pretty
| sealed up).
| mdp2021 wrote:
| > _I still have no freaking clue what this is. Is it JS? Is it
| BASIC?_
|
| > (Website:) _SpiderBasic is new web client-side programming
| language based on established BASIC rules. Its allows
| development of very complex, windowed based web applications,
| including mobile app for iOS and Android [...] SpiderBasic is a
| compiler which generates optimized JavaScript_
|
| It is a BASIC based language (and tools - e.g. an IDE, if you
| wish) that compiles into Javascript.
|
| <<windowed based web applications>>: since the original
| PureBasic, the language and tools that compiled to native
| executables, (also) allowed to build windowed applications
| (complete original GUIs), SpiderBasic, the product in the same
| family for the Web, also allows to have windows and desktop-
| like controls in a webpage (optionally).
|
| > _the docs ... a page of links to single pages without
| navigation to the rest of the docs_
|
| ??? The online documentation is hypertextual, each page linking
| to the relevant other pages - as it should be. In real
| practice, documentation is directly accessible from the IDE
| (optional but a real asset).
| msla wrote:
| > It is a BASIC based language
|
| By which they mean Object Pascal, but I suppose expecting a
| line-number BASIC these days is a bit much.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| You could say it's BASIC from details such as "the
| statements separator is the colon".
|
| About OO: the language is not made to do that - it uses a
| different paradigm -, but in SpiderBasic you could exploit
| the OO features of JS e.g. using inline JS.
| peutetre wrote:
| From JavaScript's announcement 29 years ago (https://web.archive.
| org/web/20070916144913/http://wp.netscap...):
|
| > _JavaScript is analogous to Visual Basic in that it can be used
| by people with little or no programming experience to quickly
| construct complex applications._
|
| They meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When
| JavaScript left Basic it was but the learner. Now, it is the
| master.
|
| But JavaScript is only a master of evil. It can't win.
| WebAssembly shall become more powerful than JavaScript can
| possibly imagine.
| pcdoodle wrote:
| Playing with this now. It's got auto complete and some cool built
| in examples. Would this let me make a PWA that can install to
| home screen on iOS?
|
| EDIT: looked through the forums and it's been asked about but
| doesn't appear to be implemented. Bummer.
|
| I see potential here though. There's loads of examples and
| they're easy to run and inspect. I would glady pay for this if it
| could build PWAs, this would let the apps run offline on iOS.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| You have in the IDE a "Compiler > Create App" menu, that brings
| you to a tabbed interface: "Web App | iOS | Android". Creating
| a Web App produces an HTML file, JS file and libraries
| directory; creating an Android APK requires Apache Cordoba (and
| Windows, currently); the "iOS" interface could get you close to
| the result (though I do not know if it follows the PWA idea
| closely, i.e. including manifest and service worker). Have you
| tried it?
| JohnDeHope wrote:
| I taught high school programming for one year, and used PureBasic
| as the in-class language. The kids were able to put together
| games and such things after just a few days. We never really hit
| the ceiling. The real gem was the IDE experience, built in help,
| etc. That made everything so much easier.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| > _We never really hit the ceiling_
|
| The ceiling? I coded a Neural Networks engine in PureBasic! :D
| (And much, much, much much more.)
|
| There's really no ceiling to hit.
| Freebytes wrote:
| In the past, BASIC was certainly the easiest programming language
| to use, but ironically, many newer programming languages are now
| actually easier to learn. Yes, BASIC is easy, but Python, PHP,
| and C# are actually just as easy as the old syntax when it comes
| to web based solutions.
| ddgflorida wrote:
| I'd definitely recommend Python to newbies over any other
| language.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| I don't think the idea behind PureBasic and SpiderBasic was
| simplicity. (One alluring property of PureBasic has been the
| ability to do inline ASM... But in a speedy production
| environment.)
|
| It's proably more like "there was a time in which computers
| were shipped with their own programming language, and it was
| BASIC (interfaced to ROM and machine code)". So, it's "BASIC as
| the fundamental coding tool your computer should have been
| shipped with".
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(page generated 2024-12-07 23:00 UTC)