If you've looked at the
website recently you'll see that there have been some significant changes:
- BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 has been moved above BBC BASIC for Windows in all the lists of products.
- VAT is no longer being charged, so BBC BASIC for Windows is now £24.99 everywhere (except in the EU, where it is available free-of-charge on request).
BBCSDL is now the principal, and only actively-developed, product. Being
Open Source it is the only version which has any hope of being supported long term.
BB4W should be used only when BBCSDL does not provide the required functionality. There are only a few situations when this might apply, for example:
- The application needs to output to a hardcopy device such as a printer; BBCSDL provides no such support.
- The application needs to incorporate native Windows controls or other Windows-specific features.
Note that you
can access Windows features from
BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 (so you could output to a printer or access Windows controls, by making the appropriate API calls) but of course in doing so the resulting program ceases to be compatible with other platforms.
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