Well, I'm not going to force you to use XB, but I will address your comments.

"It is no longer being developed."

Because it's stable? As I've said, the linux side is still being unofficially developed to keep up with changes in linux. Yeah, it'd be nice to have certain updates.

"The documentation is a decade old."

Because it's stable? The only reason I'm considering a rewrite of the documentation is to provide a different format some may find easier to use. And to add more example code to help explain the concepts better.

"It does not have a Newsgroup."

So?

"almost no recent entries in the Yahoo XBasic bulletin board"

So?

"It can’t read key presses"

Oh yes it can. Or I'm hallucinating my programs.

"you have to hit the Enter key before it will recognize a key press"

Sounds like you were looking at INLINE$, which is used in the console window. That's just ONE way of many ways of getting keyboard input. The method used depends on the application.

As I said, there is in INKEY$. The reason for that is simple - XBasic is not a dumbed down simple BASIC for beginners. It's not even truly a BASIC language, despite appearances.

"It probably can’t send information to Windows as if it were typed on the keyboard."

That's a different problem, which requires a different programming method to solve. I've taken a little time to browse through the Windows API functions for keyboard access, and there are functions for "synthesizing keystroke, mouse motions, and mouse clicks". ANY language that can access the Windows API can therefore do this. XBasic can access the API, therefore XBasic can do this.

"It probably can’t be used with a Windows “Pipe.”"

Yet a different problem requiring yet a different programming method. I do not have a hard answer on this one. But, I do know that XB programs can take command line input from dos calls, so from that I'd be surprised if it can't be done.

"I have a Perl program that can read key presses and also send information to Windows as if it were typed into the keyboard."

As I mentioned, I took a little time to browse the Windows API for keyboard related functions. I found the function for reading the keyboard regardless of program focus. Took only a couple lines of code for me to effectively write a keyboard logger program.

And as mentioned above, there is a SendInput() function as well for sending keystrokes.

These things are NOT a function of the programming language. They are a function of the operating system. Some languages may have a convenient command already built in, but ANY language that can interface with the OS API can do anything the OS will allow.

"Perl checks for a key press 10 times a second."

Why would you need faster anyway? As it happens, I just checked the speed of my key logger. The main loop runs in less than a millisecond, so that's 1000 times a second. Actually, it was more like 250,000 times a second, but that's a technical detail. But, this just 'hogs the cpu' to do it. Not efficient, and nobody types that fast. So of course, you only poll the keyboard every now and then. (btw, when I added a 10 millisecond sleep command to the loop, CPU usage dropped to less than 1%, ie it showed in task manager as 0%)

And how the program reacts is just a matter of programming. All I did was output the keystrokes to the 'console' window, but they could have just as easily been saved to a data file, or output to a server over the internet. Yes, XB has a network library.

"get it to do interactive graphics"

Been there. Done that.

There is a program I wrote many years ago that I released on my website. It's for browsing through laser emission lines on an interactive scrollable and zoomable spectrum display. If you want to download it and play with it to see an example of what XBasic can do....

http://www.skywise711.com/laserline/index.html

"In response to key press information sent to it by Perl the XBasic program would draw and make changes to charts etc."

Although I do not know for certain, I don't know of a reason that XBasic can't work that way. But my question is, WHY would you want to do it that way? Seems a kludge. Why not make one program to do everything instead of fighting to force a bunch of different programs to talk to each other? Inefficient.

"so that I don’t have to do all of the programming work myself."

Sounds like you should just submit a specification and hire a programmer.

The whole point of learning to program is so you can write code that does what you want, when you want, for free. But it requires taking the time to learn how to do what you need to do.

In conclusion, it's up to you to decide if YOU want to make the EFFORT to learn it. I've been using XB for at least 15 years. I'm still learning new things. It's that powerful of a language. Every time I think I find something that it can't do, I dig a little deeper and discover, "oh yes it can!" And if it truly can't do it, the language is more than powerful enough for you to write a function that does what you need. But, that's the whole point of programming, to write a program that does what you need. THERE IS NO PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE WHICH DOES EVERYTHING AUTOMATICALLY FOR YOU.

Brian