Compile without compromise !
I wrote an article once for Betanews. com ( http://betanews.com/2012/04/20/take-away-developers-pcs-and-send-them-to-walmart/ ) where I humorously suggested that programmers should have their computers taken away and be forced to buy the replacements at Walmart (mass market PC’s). While I never really expect programmers to do this, I was trying to make a point.
The main stream programming world is stuck on development tools like Visual Studio and the reality is that you really do need a power house computer to get decent compile times. For example I came across this blog (and no disrespect for the author) ( http://successfulsoftware.net/2012/10/25/lean-mean-compiling-machine/ )and he specs out what he considers a reasonable PC for development. I give him credit for opting for a more cost effective Core i5 CPU, when many programmers likely would not want anything less than an Core i7 CPU. I did have to giggle a bit when I saw the specs for RAM was 16 gigabytes.
For a long time PowerBasic programmer, like myself, this is humorous. Why ? Nothing against the programmers, but Visual Studio is simply a resource hog, especially compared to a compiler like PowerBasic. Ok, PowerBasic doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Visual Studio, but it does have one thing which makes it different.
As Bob Zale said about PowerBasic ( http://www.powerbasic.com/aboutpb.asp ), it lets you “compile without compromise” !
What does that mean to me ?
I just compiled (while also running IE 9.0 at the same time with my wordpress blog up) EZGUI 5.0 Pro and the compiler reports that it took only 2.3 seconds to compile 63,194 lines of source code. If that sounds fast to you, you may be wondering what powerhouse of a computer am I using ?
This is my Vista Home Basic PC which I upgraded this last year just so I could test the Windows 8 preview on it. I installed memory, a new CPU and a decent 3D video card. So what does this powerhouse computer have in it ?
- Vista Home Basic (32 bit)
- 3.2 ghz Pentium D CPU
- 2 gig memory
- 150 gig hard drive
- 3D Video card (comparible to those in the $50 range)
This PC has a Windows Performance number of only 3.4, so compared to the typical programmers development PC, this is not really a powerhouse (just for me it is).
Now this is a real powerhouse PC for me, since I only recently moved to it after my trusty Windows XP computer crashed. Up until recently all my development was done on that computer and it only had a 2.5 ghz Celeron CPU, 40 gig hard drive and 768 meg (not gig) memory. Even on that computer it only took a few seconds more to compile EZGUI 5.0.
The PowerBasic core compiler was written in assembler and it shows. My old PC was about comparible to todays lowliest Atom CPU and how many programmers today would use a PC with an Atom CPU as their main development machine ?
Yes, PowerBasic does allow you to “compile without compromise“. The speed of their compiler is just amazing, in my opinion. For PowerBasic programmers compiling is done in seconds, not minutes.