From: cmcrae AT laurel DOT ocs DOT mq DOT edu DOT au (Christopher McRae)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic,comp.lang.basic.misc,comp.os.msdos.djgpp,comp.os.os2.misc,comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: OmniBasic Announcement
Date: 27 May 1997 00:22:25 +1000
Organization: Macquarie University, NSW, Australia
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Message-ID: <5mc6b1$c4r@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>
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>The GFA faq you mention must be prety old, or for the Atari only. Here's
>an excerpt from my GFA manual:
>GFA-BASIC PC is, at this time, available for IBM compatible PCs
>under four operating syatems:
>GFA-BASIC for MS-DOS
>GFA-BASIC for Windows
>GFA-BASIC for OS/2
>GFA-BASIX for SCO
>(a different section)
>Dirk van Assche took over the porting of already written code to the
>Windows and OS/2 operating systems.
>(a different section)
>The MS-DOS version has some 500, the Windows version about 800, the OS/2
>version roughly 1000, and the UNIX version about 900 commands and
>functions.
>
>I think that's ample proof for GFA's OS/2 port.

Ah well..the first FAQ might have been old, the manual for GFA is also
equally old. I have been a long time user of GFABasic (over 4 years) and an
even longer user of OS/2 (over 8 years). The GFA Basic port to OS/2
mentioned in the manual is a 16bit  port suitable for OS/2 1.x (back when
Microsoft wrote it). There is NO 32bit GFABASIC for OS/2 2.0 on period. There
isn't even on for Win95/NT yet. I say YET because they are working on one.
Similarly they tell me that they are producing am OS/2 version. However they
have been telling me this for almost 2 years now.

I still use GFABasic for DOS and Windows3.1 (compilers) and heartily
recommend it for those platforms. I have implemented an over 11000 line
student assessment system using GFABASIC that is in constant use. Yes, the
compiler has had its problems, but they have over the years been ironed out.
However, I too must take exception to the term portable when applied to
GFABASIC. From bitter experience I can say uncatagorically that GFABASIC is
at best 50% portable from DOS to Windows. While I in no way see this as a
limitation of GFABASIC (I really didn't expect it to be 100% portable) it is
non the less false to say GFABASIC is portable.

Now for OmniBasic. I recently had the fortune of 'having a go' of Omnibasic.
While it is not GFABASIC in terms of raw feature, it certainly has globs of
potential. I for one have registered it. It produces native 32bit OS/2 code
and for me at least it makes a terrific development tool for CGI programs
for use on our OS/2 Web servers. Yes it lacks certain features that would be
nice and the syntax is a tad different than GFABasic (and most basics for
that matter) but it is not difficult to master.

Just my 10c worth :-)

Cheers,

  -- Chris

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Christopher McRae     _--_|\     Internet:  christopher DOT mcrae AT mq DOT edu DOT au
School of Chemistry     /      \    Voice:     +61-2-850-8288
Macquarie University    \_.--._*    FAX:       +61-2-850-8313
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Australia                           

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