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FB == C++?
Over the Internet, it is sometimes difficult to truly understand what people mean. Misinterpreted meanings sometimes then come off as insults, and you have yourself a flame war. It’s unfortunate, because for the most part, people mean no harm, and it is just a matter of a simple issue snowballing out of control.
The programming community is no exception. The Basic community itself is constantly fighting itself on the various forums that govern its social existence. Bickering, flaming and flame baiting has resulted in forums that have almost every thread polluted with arguments over miniscule issues that have been blown way out of proportion.
There is another community which is like this. In fact, over many discussions in forums and on IRC, people jokingly refer to this type of behavior as that typical of the C++ community; forums renown to be places where beginner programmers get torn apart by coding guru vultures.
Unfortunately, this is where the FreeBASIC community seems to be headed. Recently, a change in attitude has come over the people active in the forums, a clashing of egos rather than a collective focus of intellect, a bashing of creativity and opinion in the effort to impress oneself on others.
This is not to say that the forums are only filled with ego-wielding maniacs. There are kind-natured people who will help others or offer criticism with the proper respect, but times have changed since the “glory days” that were QB. What has changed? How has FB caused such rifts in the community?
I recently had a conversation with KiZ on this subject. He agreed that the general changes in attitude have not been for the better. His reasoning, which I am not going to dismiss that quickly, was that, “…arrogant people don’t use DOS.” Funny as I immediately found it, I soon saw depth in this, whether KiZ had meant it or not.
The programmers who were around when the scene was known as the Qmunity, when it was cool to have an on-going RPG project and a raycasting engine were programmers who had fun with their code. Almost nobody did real, serious work. People did turn up giving stories about their corporation keeping a twenty year-old piece of legacy BASIC code, giving good laughs all around, but these were few and far between.
It is possible the implications FreeBASIC has in serious and professional applications has attracted the kind of crowd that would normally be associated with C++. FreeBASIC has caused major changes in the way people look at a BASIC language. Finally, there is a new, powerful BASIC derivative, that is as easy to learn as the original was, but has the power to produce games that rival the commercial games of today. That usually sounds like C++ speaking.
I cannot claim to be an expert in psychoanalysis, but maybe the mindset of a serious C++ programmer is just too different to one of the Qmunity to work. It certainly has not worked yet. I just hope people come to their senses before this community, which has been a dear part of many of our lives for several years, comes crushing down to its knees.
Amen for this one.
I dont wana generalize this as it would fit for all FB users, but there is certainly happening things what makes huge wounds in community.
No point to quote your article here more.