Blackbox Oberon in the real world

From: [at]} <brett>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 02:47:30 +1100

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I read with interest the recent emails about promoting BB, after a sigh 'not
again' :-)

Firstly, let me explain that I really like BB !!
------------------------------------------------

However, after using the product in an attempt to find a replacement
development tool for a windows environment -- I was using DELPHI mainly, but
it was/is becoming more complex and unreliable,
I sadly came to the conclusion that BB just is not developed enough for
the general market.

Why :
        1) terrible access to ASII text files, -- you know those files that everyboy
use to pass data between unlike systems ??? I know you can work around such
limitations -- most programmers say ' cant be bothered'

        2) BB own file system is interesting , BUT, there is no way that I could
commit any development to using that , its too weird for general usage , and
it leaves your product totaly out on a limb if you wish to move your files to
another system. However its more or less what I would expect from a N.Wirth
language product! :-) So I used MySQL for all my file handling under BB.

        3) poor documentation -- it appears to be well documented -- but its not,
it's just a collection of interesting 'articles' -- theres very little
information on how to program BB !! Indeed I was so annoyed at this that I
wrote my own user manual so at least I would not have to wander around the BB
Help !! ( its 175 pages of useful stuff -- buts its not Pepperdine ! )
        Its so anoying to try and find "X subject" and simply get sent around the
circle of links.
        In reference to Pepperdine -- his online manual is very good, but by
introducing his own i/o system "because the standard I/o was too
confusing !!"-- he really proves the point. I personally prefer to use the
standard i/o of a language because at least some information is avaliable in
the BB help.

        4) BB GUI is really nice -- for simple things -- but falls well short of
products like DELPHI, VB, Paradox where the GUI is really powerful, maybe
too powerful you could argue -- however BB is just too limited for commercial
work -- and it has some pretty strange ways to setup various field types. The
base "BB code <--> gui interface" is really excellant -- but is not enough.
        -- the SQL GUI grid was/is just impossible for commercial work due to its
strange ( ie: very different to Windows standard) actions.
        -- the field actions, need more events than the few available, esp a
enter/leave field event action , normally one does not want to code char by
char traps, just need to know when I entered/left the field. If Ie a form
with 30 fields, coding 30 guards is just 'not on'.

        5) The lack of a printed user guide/manual that people can learn the language
is a major sticking point -- I have tried to introduct the product to other
programmers -- "wheres the manual ?" it the first question asked. A slim book
like the famous "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan & Richie would be
great help

=============However having said the above I fully inderstand that OuS are NOT in the
business of language development as they have said often before they are
system developers who happen to use/develop BB FOR THEIR OWN CLIENTS USAGE.
We , the general public, just happen to want more than they are willing to
offer !!

Its a similar tale with the Mjolner BETA development tool/language -- a great
product, but it will never be a mainstream developmentt tool for the masses.

--------------------------------------
After much scouting around I've 'probably' found the development environment
"I" need. --- and its NOT OBERON :-)

-- 
Brett S Hallett
Dragon City Systems
dragoncity{([at]})nowhere.xy--------------------------------------------
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Received on Sun Feb 09 2003 - 16:47:30 UTC