Re: masm32 - Hutch


f0dder wrote:

>
> PowerBASIC seems like a cute toy,
>
> It doesn't support static libraries, so if you want to
> link with external code, you're stuck with DLLs (which
> means additional work when other people provide static
> libraries and no DLLs).

IIRC, Visual BASIC has this same problem.

>
> It's not all too flexible, in the sense that you can't
> get rid of the runtime library code. Granted, the
> default runtime library footprint is rather small in
> PowerBASIC, but you can't get rid of it to produce *very*
> small executables.

Then again, who really cares?
If you're writing BASIC programs (or any HLL program for that matter)
is size really your primary concern?

HLLs are designed for developing *large* applications. If all the
applications we write were small, there would be no need whatsoever to
use HLLs -- assembly language would be fine. No matter what the size of
a run-time library is, it has a fixed size which you amortize over the
size of the entire application. For tiny applications, yes, the RTL
takes up a significant amount of space. For larger applications,
though, you amortize the cost away. If someone is writing a lot of
tiny apps in a language that has a huge "must be included" RTL, then
they've misused that language if size is an issue to them. However, I
suspect that size (particularly the sizes we're talking about here)
isn't an issue to most PB, C/C++, Java, etc., programmers.

>
> But if you don't care much about executable size and speed,
> like the BASIC language, and need a tool to quickly
> prototype things, PB might be the right thing for you.

That's generally why people use it, yes.

> It's a lot faster to set up windows and dialogs with their
> proprietary system, than it is to go through all the trouble
> of RegisterClass+CreateWindow , writing a WndProc, et cetera.

Absolutely. That's why VB is probably the #1 language in use today.

Cheers,
Randy Hyde

.

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