I have worked with Bob Zale of Powerbasic. I remember a nice programming gig I had with PowerBasic and some assembly language routines for connecting to SMTP timing for Voice of America. I was able to charge big bucks per hour for that, since I was one of the few people around at the time who was good with assembly language interfacing to Power Basic.
Just took a look to see if it is still around, and lo-and-behold Bob is still selling Powerbasic! According to their discussion forum, Bob is living in Venice Florida. A couple possible addresses include:
| PowerBASIC, Inc. 1978 South Tamiami Trail Suite 200 Venice, FL 34293 US |
Zale, Bob bob@POWERBASIC.COM PowerBASIC, Inc. 2100 South Tamiami Trail Suite A Venice, FL 34293 US 941-408-8700 fax: 941-408-8820 |
 | http://www.powerbasic.com - New to PowerBASIC? We offer compilers and other software development tools. Some of the best in the industry. Perfect for the novice programmer, the expert programmer, and most any level in between. We support both DOS and Windows. For a brief overview of exactly what we can offer you, just click here. You'll quickly learn how PowerBASIC Programmers Compile without Compromise! |
Bob Zale says PowerBasic is the best choice for developing on Windows and DOS, and he probably is right. A native compiler in the days when all the Microsoft .NET stuff is managed interpreted (well, ok, compile just in time), code from a native compiler is likely to have some real size and speed advantages. In their download library, they have examples of writing CGI scripts with Powerbasic. I read through one for emailing from a message posted to a web form. It was definitely very basic and simple!
| Why PowerBASIC?
Very fast, very tight code. A feature set unmatched by the others. Create a single EXE, with no run-times nor dependencies. That's the Power of PowerBASIC! Just what's so special about the PowerBASIC Feature Set? Check out PowerFeatures and see for yourself! A simple chart to describe every statement and function in each of our three compilers. Even better, see how many (or how few) are actually supported by Microsoft products. TCP, UDP, Serial Communications. Regular Expressions, Inline Assembler, Dynamic Dialog Tools, and much, much more. Every reserved word in each of our compilers is defined. |
Somehow, it seems Bob has resisted the urge to make a linux version of Powerbasic!