Web Programming for Fun- January 28, 2008 There has always been a culture of complexity-worship in the programming community. Some people seem to think that the Internet is a good excuse to take this even farther. This takes the fun out of programming, and it scares a lot of people away from even trying it. We think that this needs to be pushed back against. One of our goals in creating Run BASIC has been to make web development so easy that anyone can do it. As a language designed to make programming simple, BASIC is an ideal platform.http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/web-programming-for-fun.html Run BASIC - Zero Configuration Web Application Server- January 27, 2008 I found a blog post today that compared PHP with Ruby on Rails in terms of how much easier PHP is to install and configure than Ruby on Rails. Both of these systems are composed of at a minimum:A web server (usually Apache)A language interpreter for PHP or RubyAnd usually a database serverAnd this is a simplification. The user needs to install and configure these things which requires knowing about a lot of esoteric stuff. If you've never done this before, you can lose some of your hair. Unless.http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/run-basic-zero-configuration-web.html Run BASIC Tour Video Posted- January 26, 2008 One big challenge we face in explaining Run BASIC to people is that people have a preconceived notion of what an easy programming system is. Ruby on Rails is supposed to be easy, right Easy compared to what Java server pages Apache and Perl For a certain class of problems we need the kind of easy that BASIC (and I don't mean Visual Basic) has always provided.So, today I created a 20 minute video that walks through installation, startup, and gives a tour of the features of the Run BASIC...http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/run-basic-tour-video-posted.html Web Debugging- January 25, 2008 The topic of web debugging in Run BASIC came up today in the forums, and the topic started with some ambitious ideas from Bill W. who always has something interesting to say (here for example).Run BASIC does need a debugging facility. I realize that most web programmers probably write to logs, and you can do that in RB without adding anything but we can make it a lot easier. Just for starters I was thinking of adding a logging object of some kind. A debug button would be added to the toolbar,...http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/web-debugging.html BASIC Back By Popular Request- January 25, 2008 Sales of Run BASIC have been pretty strong since we launched it on Jan 5. It's been really encouraging to see our users post about their experiences. People are building a lot of really neat things with it.One thing that people seem interested in doing with Run BASIC is to use it as a frontend interface to various systems like home automation, machine control, monitoring and such. So requests for RS-232 serial port access, hardware port IO and even USB devices are a hot topic. See this...http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/by-popular-request.html Run BASIC Podcast Interview - Part 2- January 23, 2008 As promised, part two of the Run BASIC interview with James Robertson is now online. Amongst other things, we chatted about how web development is harder than it needs to be, and about the challenges of marketing something different because people's perceptions can be hard to break through.http:www.cincomsmalltalk.comblogblogViewentry=3378296271Enjoy!-Carlhttp://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/run-basic-podcast-interview-part-2.html Java and BASIC - Simplicity and backwards compatibility- January 22, 2008 Bruce Eckel and Joshua Bloch kick the can around about Java and complexity. Read about it here:http:www.infoq.comnews200801java-evolutionI especially like this quote about Java and web development:Web application development - this is difficult, and developing web applications with complex and underpowered technologies like JSP and JSF "is like eating soup with a fork"I've been a Java programmer for 7 years. I've never liked the language. It always seemed to me to be much too verbose and...http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/java-and-basic-simplicity-and-backwards.html Amazon's EC2 and Run BASIC- January 17, 2008 I've been trying to figure out how to provide hosting for Run BASIC users. Someone had asked, so I suggested Amazon's EC2 system. I had read about it somewhere, and then it was recommended to me while I was being interviewed here.The idea that I've been toying with is to charge a reasonable monthly fee like $15 for a Run BASIC user account on a VPS on EC2. A single instance of a VPS costs about $75 a month, and additional instances are created and removed as load changes.So far things aren't...http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/amazons-ec2-and-run-basic.html Ajax and BASIC- January 14, 2008 Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) style techniques for building interactive web applications are the rage today. They are somewhat overhyped, but there is some value there.Run BASIC already provides an exceptionally easy web programming system, but it does so with minimal special effects. There is a tiny bit of Javascript being used but almost everything is done with XHTML on the browser, and a very smart web application server.In release v1.0 of Run BASIC the widgets (and indeed the...http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/ajax-and-basic.html Moving Up From Web Design- January 14, 2008 Sometimes you will see people posting something like, "I've been creating web sites for years using HTML and FrontPage but I'd like to know how I can take the next step. How do I become a web developer" Usually the answer provided is something like, "You should learn PHP."Is PHP the answer The answer is of course, it depends.If you're just looking for a job skill you can put on your resume, then PHP may be exactly what the doctor ordered. But, if you are building your own sites or are doing...http://basicprogramming.blogspot.com/2008/01/moving-up-from-web-design_13.html |