I'll chime in here.............. I never created anything to replace MapBasic Compiler, with MB-Coder, just an editor that beat the heck out of MB at the time. Of course now days there are other editors that do the same thing I did, create a *run link* to MB and tell it to comile the MBX.
As far as DiaBuilder2000, it is nothing more than a way to *visually* place your controls, like the website says "how big is a Dialog Unit anyway?" Yes you can do some simple coding, but that was where MB-Coder came to play, and I'll cut my "free money in the mail" by making this statement - after creating you DB2k project you can copy and paste the code for the control dialog into your MB code. My personal feelings, MI Corp learned from M$ how to "steal" all your money. 50% upgrade on 0.5 year for nothing but "eye candy", but since all the issues are well documented here I'll not wake the sleeping giant. .........bzzzzzt.....wrong answer, thanks for playing, you can collect your consolilation prize going out the back door. And yes, I *highly* support Linux, Free/Open Software and my latest venture is getting VMware up on Linux with a VM of Win2k. I know MapInfo has no problem with this and the challenge is the other GIS person [DHS-WMD] uses ESRI. For all my heavy UI work, I use Delphi - my favorite language for much longer than MB - and often breaking my rule of letting MI do the mapping work by coding it integrated [second part is let VB/Delphi/C--/Jiva/etc do the UI which it is really good at]. Back to work for now, writing an extraction program for the mail server to recover mail history for the last 3 weeks for the WMD-DHS [Wasted Money Dept of Dept of Homeland in-Security] blew a 6 month old laptop harddrive [2 time they have done this in 3 years]. On Tuesday 30 May 2006 10:40, Joutsiniemi Anssi wrote: > Dear Bill, > > I appreciate you comment very much, and it is exactly the thing I've been > worried about all these years. Naturally encouragement for stealing is not > the point in here... > > The basic dilemma as I see it, is that MapBasic hasn't really been > developed for several years. Trey Patillo has done some major job to > provide some alternatives, but it all seems to end up in compling the > source code itself. The biggest problem rises, because I guess MBX file was > in a first place ment to be decompilable! It is really surprising that the > compilation process only looses the comments of the source code. As you > know even the original variable names, line numbers etc. remain in MBX's. > > So once you give information for compiling you actually open the gate other > way too. It's unavoidable drawback from this nearly looseless compiling. I > see the future of MB as a useful tool for creating UI, but I guess there is > still much more left. > > Have to reconsider the pros and cons. > > Take care, > Anssi > > ==================================================== > > Speaking as a MapBasic developer who has a considerable investment in > MapBasic applications and has clients who have invested even more to pay > me to build applications for them, I see no real advantage to releasing > information to the public about how to decompile an MBX. If you have > lost your source, and can prove the MBX is yours, Joe Bolian of > Stopwatch Maps has offered to decompile it for you for free. Outside of > recovering lost source code I see no good reason to empower any yahoo > with a tool to open up my code like a can of beans. It's not *that* easy > to create a decompiler, and I wouldn't want to see anyone who can't do > it just given the information to make it easy to steal my code and > compromise my clients' investments. By giving away the secrets you > soften up the environment for anyone to build a serious project based on > MapBasic and will only bring about its end that much quicker. > > I think that MapBasic has at least a couple more years of useful > commercial life to it, and it is very likely that old MBX applications > will still run in the .NET environment for years beyond that. Of course, > if your goal is to destroy MapBasic as a tool to build commercial > applications, and force us all to move to more advanced languages and > techniques, then go for it. I would abandon MapBasic pretty fast as a > development tool if a decompiler was made available to the public. And > for those who can't move on to more complicated and expensive software > development solutions, you would simply be exposing them to all sorts of > abuse from theft of their ideas up to and including loading a virus into > thier MBXs. > > What possible good would it do to make sorcerer's apprentices of anyone > whose heart has not been purifeid by the long quest to learn the lore > for themselves? ;-) > > - Bill Thoen > > > _______________________________________________ > MapInfo-L mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l -- Trey Pattillo Failure is not an option.... It comes standard with all Microsoft products. _______________________________________________ MapInfo-L mailing list [email protected] http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l
