Perfect Sync is winding down

[Kurt Kuzba]

Bob's upgrades were very fairly priced for what you were getting.

I'm not really sold on the upgrade model.
If there is some day a PBWin 11, I'm going to go full purchase, not upgrade.
The only time I've ever gone upgrade instead of new is for Windows 10.
I've got PB 7, 9 and 10, each with their own license.
I know upgrades make sense as an inducement for sales of new versions.
I just don't like it.

[Brice Manuel]

The upgrades were not small like many software products where reviewers examine the latest offerings to help decide whether they are worth upgrading or not. PB's upgrades were substantial and I doubt many of us would have baulked at paying a little extra, enough for Bob to get to the next release without having to borrow.

Bob's upgrades were very fairly priced for what you were getting.

Some people make the mistake of free upgrades for life and that is only viable short-term as it depends on new customers always coming in. Paid upgrades work, to an extent, but as this community shows, there are many people who are happily using older versions of PB and have no need to upgrade . A lot of software has moved to yearly and even monthly licenses to keep the income steady. Personally, I will never touch the monthly/yearly licensing as it is just too costly for me as an indie/hobby developer. That said, the monthly/yearly license is what I would probably recommend to somebody putting out a programming language (or most development tools for that matter), even if I would be excluding myself from ever using the product.

IMHO, where Bob excelled was keeping the product on track. Often, the worst thing you can do is listen to your customers. They will make demands for features, and if you give in and implement them, you will end up with a clone of another product and your product will have lost its identity and what made it unique and attracted people to it in the first place.

Adam is undertaking a journey that makes Bilbo's look like a walk to the corner store. Not only taking over a compiler, but rewriting it so it is self-hosting! This is a massive undertaking, but one that has to happen if the language is going to have any future. I am just happy the lights are still on and it looks like they are going to be on for a long time. At this point, all I can ask for is to keep the lights on and honor new sales. Anything else is gravy. The community has always been very good about expanding the language when needed, and although most have left, there are still many of us around here.

[David Roberts]

rinse and repeat

What a mess to get into. I may have re-mortgaged once but not twice. Bob should have charged more for the upgrades. The upgrades were not small like many software products where reviewers examine the latest offerings to help decide whether they are worth upgrading or not. PB's upgrades were substantial and I doubt many of us would have baulked at paying a little extra, enough for Bob to get to the next release without having to borrow. Perhaps an upgrade every couple of years with less new features instead of one every three years or so would have helped.

My opinion of Bob dropped when I read Eric's story but it has gone back up again. He did Eric an injustice but it sounds like his back was firmly up against the wall, and he was in self-preservation mode. PB was Bob's baby and it may have killed him. What a sad story.

[Brian Reynolds]

Thank you Eric for your courteous and helpful answers when I have asked some odd questions.
Retirement is not really great fun.
Regards,
Brian Reynolds
BTW - Apple takes a 30% cut of all app sales.

[Brice Manuel]

@Eric Pearson I am very sorry that you were never paid what you were owed. You are a good guy and did not deserve that. When the bottom fell out of PB, you never mentioned a dollar amount, but you did give a rough number of purchases that were unpaid to you. The guesstimation I did based on your product pricing was pretty close. It is a sickening amount of money to be lost. Back when you first mentioned the issue, there was some digging done on another forum and from all appearances, the only way PB was staying afloat was Bob would take out a mortgage/loan on his house to make payroll until a new version of PB was released. Once that new version of PB brought in enough $$, he would pay off the mortgage/loan, then when $$ got short, take out a mortgage/loan on the house to make payroll, rinse and repeat. The fact that he would do that speaks to his dedication to PB itself and his belief in the product.

Most would agree that Bob was a bad business man, but your situation has also caused many to have new opinions on his morals. Bob was human, and like all of us, he was far from perfect and all of us are our own worst enemy. No matter what went on behind the scenes and no matter what issues Bob may have had with various community members, the compilers were stable and reliable.

Eric, there are few people in this world that one can say this about, but you are indeed a class act. I have a massive amount of respect for you. And that is respect that you have earned. Thank you for all you have done for PB.

I am glad that even though your company is folding, you will be sticking around the forums. I hope your health is good and that your retirement is as stress-free as possible.

[Paul Purvis]

Eric, I have been flooding lately with real water. But I just got that order I said I would do.

[Michael Stapleton]

Thank you for everything Eric. I appreciate all the work you have done. I've even ordered a Pro license before the store closes. I truly understand how over-trusting friends and business assocoates can hurt financially. All the best.

Michael

[Eric Pearson]

> how would you act this time?

I would hope that I would be much more careful. It's hard to say; I have a something of a history of over-trusting friends and business associates. Generally speaking when I have mixed the two it has not worked out well.

[Pierre Bellisle]

Eric,

You know the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Let's say... Life put you in a very similar situation again, how would you act this time?

Off course, feel free to ignore the question if you are not confortable with it.

Pierre

[Eric Pearson]

[Mark Hunter]

Erc, whatever became of “gape”? And what was it?

[MICHAEL S THOMASON]

I have to add one more special person -- Alan Earnshaw. I absolutely loved his Powerbasic Toolbox. Best text mode interface EVER! Thanks Alan.

[John Montenigro]

Eric,

I must echo the gratitude and sentiments of those who have posted above - thanks for your unwavering support to the PB community in your software toolkits, your work for the PB company, and to the forums. You have been one of those "giants" upon whose shoulders lesser folks like me have stood, and been able to reach higher than otherwise possible.

Although I purchased SQL Tools a long time ago, I have yet to learn and master them. However, I can attest to the quality of the documentation (and support of course).

Thank you for all you've done, and I wish you the best in your retirement!

-John

[David Clarke]

Holy cow Eric! What a story. I think you know how I feel about SQL Tools; I use it all the time and it has never bitten me, ever! Plus I learned so much by working with it. I went from ADO to SQL Tools and never looked back. Enjoy your retirement, hope you will still hang out here sometimes.

[Knuth Konrad]

2. Can someone please confirm and explain the strange behavior in a compiler PB 6.04 console app where is "grays" out the close window or "X".

Mabye related to https://forum.powerbasic.com/forum/u...ans-pb-cc-6-04

[Dale Yarker]

From PBCC 6 Help for #BREAK -

With program break off, the Console Window is made stable, meaning that it cannot be closed by the user. The disabled combinations are Control-Break, Alt-F4, the close box, and even the system menu.

And, the default is OFF.

#BREAK was new in PBCC 5, the default is also OFF in version 5, but Help was … uhh … "less complete".

Because my more likely error is forgetting the last WAITKEY$ (or similar) to keep console open, I never noticed if there was a system menu change from version 4.

Cheers,

[MICHAEL S THOMASON]

Thanks Ross! I wasn't aware of that compiler directive. It seems that PBCC 6.04 the default behavior is #BREAK ON -- and in previous versions is was #BREAK OFF. Thanks for this tip.

[Dale Yarker]

Thank you Ross. Also clears my misunderstanding of what Michael said.

[Ross Boyd]

2. Can someone please confirm and explain the strange PB 6.04 console where is "grays" out the close window.

Michael, in PB 6 the console cannot be closed via the top right "X" box. It's grayed out by default.
To enable it, add this line near the top of the program source.

#break on

That should do it.

[Dale Yarker]

2. Can someone please confirm and explain the strange PB 6.04 console where is "grays" out the close window.

??? Something turns gray when console app closes?