This Forum is meaningless!

[M.Hamdy]

After moving TwinBasic to its own forum, there is only five posts left, and it is obvious that they all are about other VISUAL BASIC languages, not BASIC languages. I see zero interest here to other old (non visual) Basic dialects, so I think that the logical action to do is to rename this forum to Other Visual Basic languages and move it to be a sub-folder to the Visual Basic forum, so VB6 and VB.NET devs can see it.
Thanks.

[Peter Swinkels]

Old BASIC dialects don't appear to be completely dead yet, at least elsewhere on the web. I have seen relatively recent videos on YouTube for example. There's some activity going on at the Vogons forums (DOSBox).

But yeah, given how little activity there is here, you could do as M.Hamdy suggested. I vote this forum is renamed to something like "Classic BASIC". I have no idea whether that would motivate anyone to start posting about old BASIC dialects though. Anyone?

[si_the_geek]

While there are several variations of Basic with a Visual framework included, they are not actually Visual Basic, as that is the name of the Microsoft product.

Those other variations of Basic are somewhat similar to VB, but are not that close, so shouldn't really be included in the VB section.


Switching to another name (like Classic Basic or similar) would cause more confusion than the current name, especially as some of them haven't even been released yet.

While this particular sub-forum doesn't get a huge amount of posts (only 7 in the last month), it is still a useful place for anyone who chooses to post about some variation of Basic that doesn't have it's own sub-forum here... leaving the title vague means that people are more likely to post, as they wont feel restricted by whatever the name is.

[fafalone]

LOL this is just too funny after the 'No more twinBASIC posts in Other BASIC!" thread.

Should M.Hamdy and Peter Swinkels settle this with a good old fashioned cage match?

[M.Hamdy]

it is still a useful place for anyone who chooses to post about some variation of Basic that doesn't have it's own sub-forum here... leaving the title vague means that people are more likely to post, as they wont feel restricted by whatever the name is.

Actually, I didn't choose to post here, but my post is moved here against my will. Small Visual Basic is Based on Small Basic, which is a .NET language, so it is close to both VB6 and VB.NET (in fact sVB applications can be recompiled to C# or VB.NET, which I sometimes do when I want to debug some illusive bug).
Small Visual Basic is a compiler and IDE fully written with VB.NET, and I want it to be in the VB .NET forum because it services two purposes: as a beginners door to VB.NET and as a training playground on compilers to make it easy later for VB .NET devs to contribute to Roslyn and its ModVB (Modern VB) fork.
I will not publish any more in this forum, because no one will evem notice, after the active posts have been moved away.
So, regardless of what you decide to do with this forum, I need a more proper place for sVB. I will soon publish a book about sVB for 6 years old kids and above (I am seeking for a publisher now, and if not find one, I may self publish it on Amazon, or even release if for free). It is important that parents, teachers and beginners hear about all of that, and this can't happen here in this non-suitable forum.

[fafalone]

Have you considered a GitHub repo with Discussions enabled? That would not only provide a place for filing formal issues and feature requests with the software, but the discussions area works like a forum. A lot of the early conversations about tB took place in the tB repo, even though it's not open source.

I'm certainly not opposed to more individual forums here, but I think there does need to be some minimal level of popularity first; tB had to build quite a bit of interest before it got it's own forum (what you're asking with putting it in with .NET would be like putting tB in with VB6 and Earlier; not entirely wrong but I think the mods want to keep those to official Microsoft products). It's wonderful to have something like sVB to introduce a new generation to the BASIC family of languages, you're doing a fantastic job with it and I very much hope it takes off, but right now isn't there only one thread about it, where half the posts are your status updates?

[M.Hamdy]

Have you considered a GitHub repo with Discussions enabled?

sVB is open sourced and has a repo on github, and I had enabled discussions
Thanks.
But right-now, the only feedback I am getting is from Small Basic devs, which is good and one of the sVB targets, but its targeting also VB beginners.
I don't need a separate sVB forum. sVB had such one in the VB channel on discord, which I voted against and don't use it. This fragmentation of Vb community in its current critical status is fatal. We need to make all branches support each other. For example, one publisher that also introduces .NET training courses, mentioned his issues to update his winforms software to .NET core 8, and thee same with upgrading his old vb6 content to VB.NET, and I told him to look at TwinBasic as an alternative path to his vb6 code, and also mentioned ModVB while advising him to consult Anthony Green to help updating to .NET core 8.
I am looking at the VB family as a whole, and think that each one of them can play a role in saving the VB legacy. sVB can re introduce the language to kids and beginners, while TwinBasic can evolve the already existing vb6 projects which are still up and running, while ModVB can take VB.NET whet MS forbids it to go.
It is a certain to me now is MS now is led by anti BASIC persons, and VB.NET is not the only victim, as VBA, VBscript and even Small Basic all also expelled, which makes Python filling the void more that C# does! But, with the community efforts and these new branches of VB, I hope that things will change dramatically in the next few years.
Thanks for your advice.

[Peter Swinkels]

@si_the_geek: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the forum's title. It's valuable to consider user-friendly names to encourage broader participation. We'll keep your input in mind as we explore ways to make this space more inclusive. Feel free to share any more ideas you may have! (ChatGPT helped here.)

[Peter Swinkels]

@fafalone: Yeah, let's get together and beat each other up the good old fashioned way! *rolls up sleeves* - LOL

[Peter Swinkels]

@M.Hamdy - Good luck with your project and finding a suitable place to communicate about it.

PS:
Good luck getting the different VB branches to collaborate. :-)

[Peter Swinkels]

@fafalone: Is it actually possible to have a GitHub repo with discussions enabled? Perhaps I should look into that for my own personal projects.

As for the forum itself, while TwinBASIC now has its own forum, I don't think a forum should be created for every small project with a limited number of people involved. Although I can empathize with people who are frustrated with the lack of a proper place to showcase their personal projects and ask for help.

[M.Hamdy]

I don't think a forum should be created for every small project

This is not what I am asking for:

I think that the logical action to do is to rename this forum to Other Visual Basic languages and move it to be a sub-folder to the Visual Basic forum, so VB6 and VB.NET devs can see it.

Actually, the current forum can be considered mine, as I will almost be the only active person here, and sVB will be one of the top five
But as I said, this is practically useless, and from the administration point of view, such cold forums should never exist. Forums with little activity should never over organized like this, because this gives a negative effect.

Good luck with your project and finding a suitable place to communicate about it.

I have so many places to publish in like youtube, twitter, facebook groups, VB channels on Gitter and discord , but this is the only renaming active VB traditional forum. In fact most of my targeted audience don't exist in any of these forums, so, I mainly publish my educational videos in School groups, but these video are only for Arabs, and this is why I am writing an English book series for kids, which may induce creating English videos. I still need Vb devs to push the language, at least to promote it to their kids and relatives, as they are thee best VB advocates in this anti basic era, where kids only hear about Scratch and Python.

[Peter Swinkels]

Well, enjoy “your” forum!