Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!mordor!sri-spam!sri-unix!hplabs!tektronix!uw-beaver!tikal!hplsla!hpvcla!neff From: neff@hpvcla.HP.COM (Dave Neff) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Help needed with IBM BASCOM Message-ID: <4740002@hpvcla.HP.COM> Date: Thu, 11-Dec-86 15:45:24 EST Article-I.D.: hpvcla.4740002 Posted: Thu Dec 11 15:45:24 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Dec-86 06:55:43 EST References: <6454@alice.uUCp> Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA Lines: 37 Daniel's problem with the IBM compiler is another example that supports one if my strong beliefs: DON'T EVER BUY PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FROM IBM! Why? The tools were really written by someone else and IBM gives little support and infrequent updates. Long ago I bought Pascal 1.0 and Masm 1.0 from IBM. These were written by Microsoft and had some serious bugs and limitations. Microsoft continued to upgrade its own version of these tools but it was sometime before IBM finally had any upgrade available. I needed some of the features the newer Microsoft tools had (8087, overlays, and 32 bit integer support) so I could not wait for IBM to offer an upgrade. I threw these tools into the garbage and bought the latest ones from Microsoft. I did the right thing. It was another year before IBM finally updated their tools. I heard that people who bought the IBM 1.0 Basic compiler had similar problems especially the lack of Dos 2.0 and later directory path support. Finally IBM updated the Basic compiler but it was very slow in coming. In general, it is best to by any software from the company that originally made it. You will get better support and faster updates. I know that Daniel seems to be "stuck" since I understand that the latest Microsoft Basic compiler does not have some of the nice features of the IBM compiler so moving over to Microsoft's latest version may not be practical. But its worth considering. By the way, I'm no great fan of Microsoft. Their software has more bugs than it should and their documentation is average at best. But they do have above average product support. Dave Neff hpfcla!hpvcla!neff