What do you like about BlitzMax

Started by Xaron, September 14, 2017, 20:11:23

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Hardcoal

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GreyAlien

Love:
- I love the fact I can still use BlitzMax to make commercial 2D PC/Mac games (I don't really care about Linux, sorry)
- I started with BlitzPlus which was not OOP and so when I starting using BlitzMax it was a great relief to be able to use OOP.
- I love how easy it is to just get going drawing stuff in DirectX or OpenGL and how it does sound, file handling, input etc. and has a bunch of useful basic classes (Types). Though I've still written my own extensive framework on top of that.
- It's fast.
- Also it's good how you can modify the modules if need be, both the .bmx ones and even the C++ or Objective C ones if need be.
- The community has always been super-helpful.

Dislike:
- I wish it was still supported, though by all accounts Brucey is doing a fine job. I've tried out NG, but only briefly and it seems good. I'll probably get into it more after I've shipped my current game.
- The IDE is little more than an editor which is why I've been using BLIDE for years, which is better for larger multi-file projects.
- I wish there was more control over the lower level DirectX/OpenGL stuff without modifying the modules so I could do cool stuff.
- Obviously it would better better if it could work on other platforms too, but NG does that now.

Steve Elliott

Quote
I'll probably get into it more after I've shipped my current game.

Put something in the gallery  ;D
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

MikeHart

Quote from: Steve Elliott on September 26, 2017, 09:29:59
Quote
I'll probably get into it more after I've shipped my current game.

Put something in the gallery  ;D

Shadowhand is beautiful artwork, definitely! Glad to have you with us here Jake!

GreyAlien

Thanks! OK will post something now.

ms62

Thanks for the question, it helped me think deep about myself. Good that the question is personal and is about only feeling ("you + like") not like: why you think BlitzMax is a good programming language.

I write small programs, all in Windows only. So, please consider that limitation, here is my input:

I like BlitzMax for the following reasons:

1 - It is easy to use.
2 - OOP is not mandatory with it.
3 - It has enough primitive data types.
4 - Provides enough for my user data types.
4 - It has worked 100% for me so far.
5 - Adding modules to it is easy, not as Blitz3D for end users, though.

I do not hate BlitzMax, but, I wish I could have:

1 - A modern set of 3D API, like improved Blitz3D.
2 - A good IDE like Netbeans or Visual Studio. 
3 - Modules for data science.

I generally consider BlitzMAX a dead product. But, I will use it as long as Windows kindly let me use it.

How about Monkey I and II?

Monkey I -  Very nice, but BlitzMax is enough for me.
Monkey 2 - I don't need all features of OOP.

Multi-platform things?

I generally don't care.

Will I support BlitzMax NG, the 64-bit version?
Definitely, but I am not optimistic. If I see versions after versions and modules after modules, I will financially help.