1 of 1

Write now Article Tools

Introduction

The funny thing about conventional wisdom is how often it's wrong. It's amazing how often people have strong convictions about things - often to the point of zealotry - that in the face of facts and science are simply flat wrong. Conventional wisdom holds, for example, that Windows is riddled with security holes while Linux is the paragon of security. However, a 2005 year-end vulnerability summary report by US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) concluded that Linux/Unix accounted for a jaw-dropping 2,328 vulnerabilities while Windows had just 812!

Ready for an even bigger jaw-dropper? Hold on to your hat! For at least the past twenty years, conventional wisdom has held that if you need to write applications that are small, efficient, and fast, you had to write them in C, C++, or assembly. Sure there are other languages that are easier, but conventional wisdom held that using an easier language came with a very steep tradeoff - poor performance. As a consequence, C/C++ remained ensconced as the language of choice for demanding professional applications. Well guess what - conventional wisdom has just been proven wrong again.

You may not have heard the news, but there's a new compiler on the scene that boasts very impressive performance numbers, but the really surprising thing is that this new compiler is based on a programming language dismissed by
conventional wisdom long ago - BASIC. The compiler is called HotBasic (www.hotbasic.org), and it's set to take the software development world by storm. And believe it or not, it's a serious contender for wresting the performance crown from C/C++.

HotBasic is an all-new compiler built from scratch from the ground up. It was written and is still being developed and supported by an accomplished scientist named Dr. James J. Keene. In 2003, Dr. Keene needed a compiler to write some software for an experiment he was working on, but to his surprise he couldn't find one that met his standards. So he decided to write the compiler he needed himself. Applying sound engineering principles and completely rejecting the "it's good enough" mentality, Keene soon discovered that he had almost by accident written what he saw as the best compiler in the world for generating the fastest, smallest, and most efficient executables. Intrigued by his claims, I decided to put HotBasic to the test.

I've written software for almost twenty-five years. I started with BASIC, then moved up (or down, however you look at it)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about HotBasic goes head-to-head with its competition?
We want to hear your view. Write now!