about Psch

[Petr Schreiber]

Inspired by others, please let me introduce myself :)

My real name, as you probably know, is Petr Schreiber.

I am 21 years old, I live in Brno, Czech Republic
I am currently studying 3rd year at University in my city, still living in the house with my family : parents, sister, brother, tomcat, 3 dogs and one white rat :)

So unlike other guys on forum I have not wife nor child yet, although during last summer some baby on street showed to me and said "father" ;D

I am interested in computer related things, especially 3D graphics, game programming and taking (digital) photos. I also have positive relation to animals, although I am not pretty sure I am ideal "parent" for adopting those creatures :-\

I started programming when I was 10, on programmable calculator HP-42s, which I still have and use. As it has graphic function set and matrices it is dream machine for me.

PC programming I started on school course, using Turbo Pascal, but in fact I did not learnt anything and just got wrong opinion about Pascal language.

When I managed to get on highschool, my parents gave me Toshiba laptop ( 486SX25, DOS + Win3.1 ) which I used first for QuickBASIC experiments. I was little bit depressed by QB IDEs tendence to correct my code, so I was thinking of going to "that tool father uses".
It was PowerBASIC for DOS. My father is ubercoder, so I thought I will get similar results soon.
"Surprisingly" results came slower than expected. I tried to write games, first text based adventures with ASCII graphics and later SCREEN 12 colorful things. I spend about 2 years enjoying PB/DOS, which was ideal for my purposes.

Envying my friend in school, which "already did Windows apps and I was still stuck in DOS" :D, I made a slight pressure to move to PB/DLL, but I was not ready. Ignoring father warnings I was drowning in PB/DLL 6.0 for long time. When OpenGL headers by Sublevel6 group were released for PB, I woke up. I was 15, I got new PC and OpenGL looked cool!

Sadly my PC 3D card did not supported OpenGL in hardware, so I had to think carefully before executing my first 3D apps if it will be worth watching slideshow.
When time runs slow, I at least could learn OpenGL deepely, to make it run even in its unaccelerated mode.

Then I bought my first 3D card, Radeon 7000. I wanted to write games at first place, but I could not effort 3DS Max ( which was only tool I knew used for modeling ), so I experimented with SoftCAD for a while, writing exporters producing, ahem, PB OpenGL code directly. Then I started to create my own 3D tools, to be not dependent on functionality of other software and their complicated binary formats.

In those times I bough ZX-Spectrum for ridiculous price, to improve my 8bit knowledge, it is still working :)

I got two friend on highschool which helped me a lot on job of designing 3D editors, they did testers for me and I got nice feedback from them

Using my "ModelEd 1.0" technology :D we, me and my friend as modeller in this esoteric editor, managed to sold first app for money, editor for designing school classes written in PB/DLL 6.0. It is still used, you can see result on our customer web site (http://www.komeskola.cz/help.htm). I developed special cartoon rendering for this project, but as you can see our client does not use this feature at all :). This project was very intensive test of my skills, I almost got mad but all ended ok and there are no complains. Or the guy lost my adress ;D

I tested on my friends 3 products, and each new was in their opinion worser than the one before. They prefered easy to use, very basic functionality, I wanted universal tool, which ended in "ModelEd 1.5" - tool with my own scripting language. I loved it. They hated.

This started kind of programming crisis, in conjunction with leaving highschool and "upgrading" to university quite a double shock.

Luckily that year we got ADSL internet ( till then 14.4 modem ), so I could start to learn new technologies and saw Eros post on PB forum about thinBASIC first official release! I was interested, as I wanted to compare it to my solution, in mentioned editor. Wow, well Eros did it better :D and I liked the profesional and friendly way of supporting the product, so I am here :). And things get better and better :)

Including TBGL in official release was like Xmas^2 and got me out of programming crisis period for sure.

I think most of the programming I learn(ed) in years with thinBASIC, all people here are very friendly and big brains, so I could see and do things I thought never possible.
This forum is place I visit every day to meet real friends, at least virtually.


I am sorry this got long but it had to get out :D
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

:) Thanks Petr for the inside view.

You have a rat? That's great, I love them. Any pictures of it?

I had one too but had to put her to sleep last year because of a tumor. Never got one again as I was very attached to it.

[Petr Schreiber]

:'(

That is sad Mike,

but rats are very sensitive to such a things, but you know it...

Here is photo, not best one, but she is moving too fast to take better :D
Also art co-model for psch.thinbasic.com forum logo :)


Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

:) She's a cutie, what's her name?

[kryton9]

You think you know someone and then you find out they have a Rat... ok Petr, do I really know you?
Ok for a rat, I must say that is a good picture as the rat does not look menacing and cute.

Now I want to see photos of your other pets too.

Loved the story about the baby on your street calling you Daddy!

I was glad to read of your hardship with powerbasic in starting out, now I don't feel like such an idiot.

I think that is cool you started programming on your calculator. A wonderful way to start I think. I was always curious how you ended up with Basic as I thought anyone young would be drawn to Java, so now with history it makes more sense.

Anyways enjoyed reading your story, thanks for sharing!!

[Petr Schreiber]

Mike,

shes name is Emily :)

Another pets photos :D, I will try to find some.



Loved the story about the baby on your street calling you Daddy!

Well, I am still a bit scared :)

My calculator language is not much BASIC, more kind of nicer assembly with strings, matrix and complex numbers support:


LBL "HiKent"
"Hi Kent, how are you today"
AVIEW
PSE
"Enter number:"
AVIEW
R/S
X>0?
GTO A
X<0?
GTO B
X=0?
GTO C
LBL A
"Bigger than zero"
AVIEW
XEQ I
LBL B
"Less than zero"
AVIEW
XEQ I
LBL C
"Zero!"
AVIEW
LBL I
"End of proggie"
AVIEW
END.


I did not go Java way because of OpenOffice "speed" ( uses Java ) on my older PC and its syntax.


Bye,
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

Man, I think you got me hooked again. On the weekend I will visit the animal shelter to see if they have some rats.

[Petr Schreiber]

Go ! :)

Rats are really awesome creatures !


Petr

[kryton9]

I remember Petr when you wrote about your HP calculator experience, I thought it was neat because you then start out with this very low level language and it makes sense on the platform it is on. I never knew how you went from that low level stuff to Basic instead of on to C++ or Java. But now I see the path and also that PowerBasic can go very low level like C, so it is a clearer picture now.

I like animals, but I don't think I can warm up to a Rat, hearing your guys stories about your rats as pets will be enough for me :)

[Michael Hartlef]

What I like about rats is their personality. I compare them a little with cats. They are smart and you can see definately if their like someone or not. Some rats are smooth and easily fellows, some are mean. You better not get your hand next to them or your missing a chunk. :)

[Michael Clease]

only difference with cats is I think cats are vermin, where as rats I agree can be very friendly and good with children (not all rats).

[Petr Schreiber]

Well,

both Abraxas and Mike are right.

Cats are special, that our in beginning tried to extract my eyes but after years is very kind :)

Our (tom)cat has little bit of hunting relation to the rat, but rat has very friendly relationship to one of our dogs on other side - rat is even trying to climb on her head from the cage without problem :)

Kent, I understand your little repulsion of rats, many people consider them dirty for example. But you would see it is not true :)

Regarding C++, Java ... my father bought Borland C++ 2.5 long time ago, but I was SO ANGRY even the sample programs threw out tens of errors and long compilation ( that was in my 486SX25 times ) that I went the PB way. And I am lucky like that. Still I have some very surfacial C knowledge, because I learned OpenGL mostly from C code.


Petr

[kryton9]

C and C++ still have incredible amount of errors that pop up during the long compilation still. Just so many areas that things can go wrong, compiling to linking it is a mess.
That is where Delphi and the way Borland handle things is so much more superior I think.

I think right now though, all things considered, FreePascal with Lazarus is the best option for power, modern programming practices, and the ability to develop for an incredible wide range of systems.

I think PowerBasic could move into this same situation if they opened up to tapping into the power of the great programmers in the powerbasic community.

All I know is once thinBasic is finished to a point where I know it is headed, it will serve my needs for the Microsoft World of development perfectly and for working on my game.

[RobertoBianchi]

C and C++ still have incredible amount of errors that pop up during the long compilation still. Just so many areas that things can go wrong, compiling to linking it is a mess.


I think that it dependes from a programmers. ;D

However it's my opinion that until now the C language has a power unmatched by other languages.
That's why in almost all languages you find that there are examples of porting from C language to the new language and not vice versa.

But obviously if you are looking for a modern, modular, with a small learning curve, very productive and well-supported, then forgotten C (but also PowerBasic) and please uses ThinBASIC. ;)

Ciao,
Roberto

[Petr Schreiber]

You are right Roberto ;D


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

Roberto,

do not exagarate! :D

I prefer to "sell" myself 80 even if my value is 100. Usually there are much less problems.
Many times people "sell" themself 100 even if they value 80 but it is a short run. Sooner or later the 20 difference will create big problems.

But you know, Roberto has always an ironic part in his replies ;)

[RobertoBianchi]

Eros,

for me true price it's allways the right choice isn't it?
Which of
modern, modular, with a small learning curve, very productive and well-supported are false or may create a big problems in future?
Let me imagine, maybe a umbilical cord problem with PowerBASIC language? ;D

Ciao,
Roberto

[ErosOlmi]

OK, Roberto.
You are right and project addicted ;D
I'm happy about that!

[zlatkoAB]

Hi...
You say that you from Chezk Republic , i allways mean that you
from Germany becose your last name is Schreiber,i mistake
bye...
zlatko

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Zlatko,

I know it is confusing ... but it can be good camouflage to have the german name :D
Interesting how Slavonian languages are close to each other - here:

http://www.aurelbasic.net78.net/

... you have some forum instructions not in english, but in your language ( Croatian? ) and I think I can understand it without bigger problems ( well, little exageration :D ) - for example days seems to be +/- matching "Nedjelja" vs. "Neděle", while "ě" is alias for "ie" :)


Petr

[catventure]

¿ǝƃɐnƃuɐl uʍop ǝpısdn uɐ uı uǝʇʇıɹʍ sɐʍ ʇɐɥʇ ǝƃɐssǝɯ sıɥʇ ǝʇɐlsuɐɹʇ noʎ uɐɔ

[Petr Schreiber]

;D

Hmm ... click here (http://www.acapela-group.com/Greetings/fish-1-42-b90d25c70d77) ?


Petr

[catventure]

;D

Nice one, Petr!

But can your fish do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buQKZOaB6cY

catventure

[zlatkoAB]

Yes it is very similiar in some names ;)

[Petr Schreiber]

:)

Catventure ... poor fish :D I thought it is a joke / random stuff, so I tried that website on the end of video and I am afraid those guys mean it seriously. Would be even more interesting if the fish basketball would include dribbling :P


Thanks,
Petr

[kryton9]

Seeing that fish-- thought to be cold blooded, running on instinct animals can be trained... I wonder if the animal rights activists will protest the eating of fish?
I know I will never look at a can of tuna and feel the same again, I could be eating an aquatic soccer superstar?