"What did you do with your PowerPC Mac today?"
Nothing much of a big deal, just coding some test projects in the first pre-release of REALbasic 1.0 (F1), and seeing how compatible it is with its predecessor, CrossBasic, which can compile not just 68k/PPC GUI apps from the same code base, but also even Java (unlike any REALbasic version). The answer? Very compatible, you can straight up use the REALbasic F1 docs and then switch over to CrossBasic and type the code you see in.
Too bad there's only an early developer version of it floating around (DR1r7) instead of anything newer, although I noticed Garden's @gingerbeardman's Japanese Magazine CD dumps have newer versions of it (DR1r22 and an unspecified "DR1" release) flying around, which I plan to try out soon.
Did I ever say how much REALbasic kicks ass? It kicks SERIOUS ass, especially 5.5.5, it went on to show how much of a joke mainstream dev tools really are in comparison (ahem, in many ways, but not all). Yet, REALbasic is such an underdog fame-wise,
especially outside the Mac context. Perhaps if they didn't ditch away Mac OS support as early as they did, they would have had better success.
I wish I had tried REALbasic sooner than this. I'm
really late to the ride. But man, what a nice breeze this ride gives!
Essentially, what makes it so great is that if you DO want to make something, but you don't have the time, OR mood, to set up a whole C app, just quickly slap it together with REALbasic. And automagically targets WHAT?! Mac OS, OS X, Windows and x86 GNU/Linux. And that too NATIVELY, no runtime or VM bullshit. Just unbelievable. (GNU one does require QT 2.0+ and some other crap that is often already there by default, however).
