My Opinion of Db

Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/My Opinion of Db

Well heres some thoughts I had, which is why I never tried it in the first place, there was soo many reasons to go with blitz, just wanted to share.

The first thing I found out is Db is not very user friendly.
I remember when I was a newb looking for a programming language to learn, I wanted to see the code, I wanted to see some examples, and I wanted to see a manual. Neither of these things is very easy to get in darkbasic. Even after your download their bulky trial version, you have no examples, and a poorly designed command reference. I understand theres reason for security of your product, however I was sure that trying to read their forums I was going to have to give them my credit card number, all in all after just visiting the website I felt like a cheap whore.

So then I now have the trial downloaded. I install and run it for the first time. Line numbers! Ewww, that just looks horrible, that litte triangle/info screen that pops up on the right is kind of annoying too but. Alright well its working. Now to see some examples. Okay copy and past some examples from the website in, since their are none in the trial *boo!!!!*. Alright copy, past, run! , er walk, er. Well you see watching this thing try to compile its own code was like watching a blind paraplegic slip on a condom. That status bar is horrible, and my blitz runs, like in 2 seconds, but 20 for a db program. Alright status bar done, screen flash, 10 second delay, Db Pro Has caused in error . Can't remember now. Now it doesn't tell me where, even when I run in debug nomde, nada. Never really had this problem with blitz, except soe unable to create 3d scenes. So i copied/pasted about a dozen more examples. Half of them worked. If only half of them work on my computer, theres alot of sad dark basic. Could it be with such bad coding that Db is repsonsible for several abortions of coders. I mean if you tried it, failed it, well it probably wasn't your fault. Between me and my friend, we have 7 computers. On 4 of the 7 that we have, this does not work-perform checklist for net connections. They all have the min requirements, and they are all hooked up via the web. Now, if blitz does not create a server, it will let me check, this wouldn't. 1 line crashed my program and didn't tell me why. "perform checklist for net connections". Yes that is pure unaltered ugly dark basic code. Many other ugly commands, like "make object box". I felt like I was ernets himmingway writing a short story everytime i inputted a line of code. Make object box, whatabout makebox, or box, well I'll stick with createcube(). Well this is where my experience with dark basic ends. If I can only get it to work on half the computers I have access too, well how many people are going to buy a program that they can't use. But anyways I'll take one more look for my friend, but I'm going to go take a shower, and some advil. Oh and why holy download batman, 550 megs whats blitz, 32? You all have heard the term the craps piling up so high in here your eyes are turning brown, well now we know how high, about 550 megs.

You are NOT wrong, however there's a lot who think DB is 'ace', and just get on with it. It is a very popular language and it is still supported - despite the criticisms as above and others. I guess you can't help feeling that you were glad you found B3d and settled for that?

The question I would probably want answering is so what have good users done with it so far? Show me something which I can be impressed with that wasn't done in C++. Where can I see DB being used in a commercial environment. The main answer to this (afaiK) is that you can see a Driving Instruction DVD in Asda which has the DB logo on it - so stuff is published (Focus Multimedia) and in PC worl you can buy the actual products themselves, but there seems to be nothing else which has been made in DB, in use, in the real world.

I have developed B3D products which are in visitor centres and museums and tour in exhibition form. I have ambitions to make these more widely accepted by such places, (a hard task actually!). If you look at Torque, you can see real world, commercial examples of games - some are quite good, so it proves that (a) people can get used to the syntax and command structure (b) They can solve the art pipeline issues (c) They can complete a commercial game (d) They can produce stuff for XBOX and XBOX360. The same can be said for Virtools.

What is funny is that quite a few tools in the DB forums were made with Blitz languages...lol

Gile[s]
Cartography Shop
3D World Studio
Tree Magic
CharacterShop
Tatoo
ExGen
T.Ed
Plant Life

(Please correct me if I'm wrong here as I have made a couple of assumptions).

I have stated this before, a good language is only as good as it's programmer. With Blitz, there is plenty to celebrate, and with BMax3D I can see there will be for years to come.

IPete2.

www.smartscreenuk.com

What is funny is that quite a few tools in the DB forums were made with Blitz languages...lol

Gile[s]
Cartography Shop
3D World Studio
Tree Magic
CharacterShop
Tatoo
ExGen
T.Ed
Plant Life


Isn't the PlayBASIC they sell also made in Blitz?