From that page: "RapidQ's author, William Yu, sold the source code to
REALbasic in 2000. The freely distributed program is still available
and in use, but hasn't been updated since."
Using a programming language that is no longer under development
(about 5 years!), are you shure?
It has been possible to update it via external parts like library units
etc.. so that does not give a correct picture of the situation.
The amount of free example programs in rapidq is very big and very
valuable for a user of the language. You can take a program which is
working and start changing it until it fits your purposes.
There aren't so many freeware alternatives in basic compilers, so even
a 5 year old language is very valuable, and rapidq is a lot easier to
read and write than visual basic. This has made it very attractive even
though it is not technically as sophisticated as other languages.
William Yu made the then current version into freely distributable
freeware before he started to work for mr Perlman.
Mr Perlman cannot change the license of rapidq
retroactively, once freely distributable freeware stays freely
distributable freeware.
The status as a free programming language is so valuable compared to a
closed circuit language that it doesn't matter much that it is a few
years old.
Mr Perlman owns the copyright to the old compiler
which is freeware, but has declared publically, in a discussion with
me, that he will never put any demands on the language itself. If others
write new compilers, the language is free from connections to him.
There are several projects going on which are creating new compilers
for the rapidq basic programming language.
Because of the unique name rapidq it is easy to find on the web, so I
don't give any links to it.
