I like BlitzMax a lot. The documentation isn't bad. If you need a new feature you can usually just import a third-party library. I do not understand why people complain about the GUI module: It is the best GUI library I have ever seen. It's brilliant, especially compared to the other choices you have like wxWidgets, which are bloated and hard to work with.
I have two problems with BlitzMax that are sort of related. At first I was hoping BMX would catch on as a viable alternative to C++, but BRL's lack of any marketing strategy ensures that won't happen. It's really a great language, but it gets sold as a "2D Game Maker" instead of the cross-platform open-ended wonder it is. BRL should offer it to schools for free. That would cost nothing, and build legitamacy. There is so much they could be doing to make BlitzMax an established language, but that won't ever happen because Mark doesn't trust business people ever since George Bray screwed him over. Why do you think I have built a relationship with TGC? BRL doesn't have any connections to NVidia or Microsoft. I am not going to get on microsoft.com by working with BRL on anything, not that they would even respond to my emails.
The second problem is it does not appear there is any plan for significant future development, and the latest news on Blitz3D 2 confirms this. I am not slagging BRL. I hope I am wrong. But if I had to put money on an educated guess of what the future holds, I would say there will be no multithreading support one year from now, and the IDE will be about the same as it is now.
If BRL had a plan to eventually add multithreading and had some ads on the internet somewhere, I would feel good about using BlitzMax. But the current situation makes it look like it will always be an unknown, and I get tired of people giving me a blank stare when I say I use BlitzMax. They usually think I am talking about Dark Basic when I say that. I was offered a position teaching a computer games course, and they told me they were not happy with their tools, and wanted something easier to try to get students into it without scaring them away with too much C++ maths. I didn't take the job, but I recommended they try Blitz3D, and they liked the idea. I was actually offered a job working on the Windows version of Unity3D (I've been to their office in Denmark). I tried to convince them to do the editor in BlitzMax, because then it would work on Mac and Windows with no changes, but they were scared to do that. I get tired of advocating solutions I know are better, but are completely unknown. It's like you can't help someone who doesn't want to help themselves.
So right now I am thinking we will probably make the switch to C++, once the engine is finalized. This is not a move I want to make, and it is going to hurt productivity, especially when I am implementing new things, but right now I don't see BlitzMax ever expanding beyond this website. I wish I was wrong, but everything I have seen indicates to me that BlitzMax is a dead end.
I have two problems with BlitzMax that are sort of related. At first I was hoping BMX would catch on as a viable alternative to C++, but BRL's lack of any marketing strategy ensures that won't happen. It's really a great language, but it gets sold as a "2D Game Maker" instead of the cross-platform open-ended wonder it is. BRL should offer it to schools for free. That would cost nothing, and build legitamacy. There is so much they could be doing to make BlitzMax an established language, but that won't ever happen because Mark doesn't trust business people ever since George Bray screwed him over. Why do you think I have built a relationship with TGC? BRL doesn't have any connections to NVidia or Microsoft. I am not going to get on microsoft.com by working with BRL on anything, not that they would even respond to my emails.
The second problem is it does not appear there is any plan for significant future development, and the latest news on Blitz3D 2 confirms this. I am not slagging BRL. I hope I am wrong. But if I had to put money on an educated guess of what the future holds, I would say there will be no multithreading support one year from now, and the IDE will be about the same as it is now.
If BRL had a plan to eventually add multithreading and had some ads on the internet somewhere, I would feel good about using BlitzMax. But the current situation makes it look like it will always be an unknown, and I get tired of people giving me a blank stare when I say I use BlitzMax. They usually think I am talking about Dark Basic when I say that. I was offered a position teaching a computer games course, and they told me they were not happy with their tools, and wanted something easier to try to get students into it without scaring them away with too much C++ maths. I didn't take the job, but I recommended they try Blitz3D, and they liked the idea. I was actually offered a job working on the Windows version of Unity3D (I've been to their office in Denmark). I tried to convince them to do the editor in BlitzMax, because then it would work on Mac and Windows with no changes, but they were scared to do that. I get tired of advocating solutions I know are better, but are completely unknown. It's like you can't help someone who doesn't want to help themselves.
So right now I am thinking we will probably make the switch to C++, once the engine is finalized. This is not a move I want to make, and it is going to hurt productivity, especially when I am implementing new things, but right now I don't see BlitzMax ever expanding beyond this website. I wish I was wrong, but everything I have seen indicates to me that BlitzMax is a dead end.