From: dave@powerbasic.com (Dave Navarro)
Subject: Re: PowerBASIC
 
In article ,
see.my.sig.for.email.address.@nospam.com says...
> In article ,
>    dave@powerbasic.com (Dave Navarro) wrote:
> >You may just consider this a "first offense", but we take this kind of
> >thing *very* seriously.  This is not a joke to us.  Illegal distribution
> >of software costs software publishing companies over $1 BILLION a year
> >in lost revenue.  In the end, honest people end up paying for it with
> >higher prices.
>
> Not always dave.
 
Even "most of the time" is too much.  Every time I have to plunk down $400 
or
an *upgrade*, it doesn't make me happy.  And I'm sure many others feel the
same way.
 
It's not my place to argue the moral points with you or anyone about software
piracy.  It's a decision that you and everyone else has to decide for
themselves.  But on this side of the fence, I have first-hand knowledge about
how it directly affects the company I work for and therefore indirectly
effects me.
 
I'm not telling you that because this one guy allowed several hundred people
to download PowerBASIC that tomorrow we're going to raise the price of
PowerBASIC.  But I am telling you that if we did nothing and just allowed
these people to continue giving away our hard work, we may, in the future,
have to raise prices to those who do pay.
 
I'm sure that most people would prefer our aggressive attitude against the
illegal distribution of our product.
 
> >Would you seriously prefer that we just let this guy and those who
> >illegally downloaded our software "off with a warning" and charge you
> >and other honest customers for the lost revenue by raising our prices?
>
> And just what do you intend to do to those who did download it?
 
I don't know.  That's not my department.  At the very least I hope the S.P.A.
and our legal staff make some people's lives miserable for their chicanery.
 
> On another point, can you tell me what I'm missing since I'm just a tad
> behind on the versions?
 
PowerBASIC 3.5 is $59 and comes with new manuals.  Here's the feature list
from the README.TXT file:
 
    What's New in PowerBASIC 3.5
    ============================
 
    + $ELSEIF metastatement added for enhanced control of conditional
      compiling.
 
    + The ampersand character (&) can now be used to concatenate strings:
 
         MyString$ = MyString$ & "1"
 
    + ASC statement added to allow placing a byte value into an existing
      string:
 
        ASC(MyString$, 5) = 65   'change the 5th char to an "A"
 
      This is functionally equivalent to:
 
        MID$(MyString$, 5, 1) = CHR$(65)
 
      However, the ASC statement uses more efficient code.
 
    + ASC/ASCII functions support an optional parameter, which allows
      you to get the byte value of a character beyond the first byte
      in a string.
 
    + ASCIIZ string data type has been added.  An ASCIIZ string is the
      same as a fixed-length string, except that the last character in
      the string is always a null [CHR$(0)].
 
    + CONSIN function returns the status of input (keyboard) redirection.
      If standard input originates from the console (keyboard), it returns
      true (-1).  If redirected from a file, it returns false (0).
 
    + CONSOUT function returns the status of output (screen) redirection.
      If standard output displays on the console (screen), it returns
      true (-1).  If redirected to a file, it returns false (0).
 
    + The CVI, CVL, etc. functions now support an optional parameter
      which is the starting location within a string to extract a value.
      For example, to extract an integer value from the 5th position in
      a binary string:
 
        x% = CVI(My$, 5)
 
 
Continued with next message...
 
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