Recommendations
Unfortunately, the number of PowerBASIC-specific web sites is rather small. Despite their low numbers, there are several web sites dedicated to PowerBASIC programming issues which are worth the time and effort to visit on a regular basis. Here are my recommendations for PowerBASIC-specific sites.

Top Sites
With a few hundred site to choose from, which ones should you start with and which have the most content? Here's my pick of the most useful sites.

Don't forget to check out the vendor web sites on my tools page. The vendors listed on the tools page are NOT listed here, except where the vendor page has information or value other than the vendor's products!

• PowerBASIC Home Page
  The home page for powerbasic - online Help, vendor listings, source code downloads, technology tutorials and very active forums. I'd say the forums are easily the most useful part of the site, particularly when it comes to source code discussions.

  The site needs more introductory material and commented source code oriented towards beginners. The forums serve most of this purpose, but a more organized approach would be helpful to newbies.

  There are a ton of downloads, but unfortunately many are somewhat old so you'll have to filter through them all to find useful content.

• Jose Roca Software
  Tools, libraries, controls, headers, examples and articles on Windows programming with PowerBASIC. The freeware SED editor is a key item available from the site.

  The are also several PowerBASIC forums - not with the volume as that at the PowerBASIC home site, but on a variety of Windows programming topics discussed from the viewpoint of a PowerBASIC programmer.

  There are also several referecence sections - compilations of materials on a very wide range of Windows programming.

• Borje Hagsten's Files
  Home of POFFS - offline search of PowerBASIC forums thru Aug 2007. Plus lots of source code examples

• Hutch's Home Page
  Tutorials on assembly language programming.

• FredShack
  It's just one page - a very long page. There's a short discussion about PowerBASIC, a good discussion on tools a PowerBASIC programmer needs. There's also a good number of source code examples.

  The site also have a very lengthy number of articles on a very wide range of programming/internet topics. You'll want to read several of these, even though they are not specific to PowerBASIC.

  The site hasn't been updated in a while and several of the links are not longer valid.

• Buff's QuickBasic/PowerBASIC Page
  Almost 100 source code examples, including whole apps, not just snippets, covering a wide range of topics - tools, business apps, tips, libraries, games, and graphics.

  There's a big emphasis on QuickBasic (including a lengthy tips section) and PowerBASIC for DOS.

Additional PowerBASIC Site Listings
These additional sites are also good sources for tools, source code, or discussion. These tend to have less content, although the content may be excellent.

Within each ranking (3-star, 2-star, ...), sites are listed in alphabetical order.

• DASoft BASIC Code, Tips & Tricks
  Over 25 various utility apps, with source code

• Hutch's Home Page
  Freeware tools and games - editors, assembler tools and tutorials, and a variety of apps to facilitate creating windows from within PowerBASIC applications.

• IFX Group PowerBASIC Source Code
  About 40 utility applications and source code - networking, file/folder access, smtp/pop3 routines, and even a game. Source code for determining directory sizes, finding duplicate files, and searching sub-directories are provided.

• PowerBASIC Functions
  About 20 source code examples for a variety of functions - dates, strings, printing, file processing progress indicator, parsing, and text-to-HTML.

• PowerBLua
  Using LUA within PowerBASIC applications

• RValois Informatica
  Nine programs and PowerBASIC source code - chess, simple games, editable ListView, neural network, oscilloscope, zip compress/decompress, index manager and DX8 Include for PB.

• Sam's HomePage
  Source code for about 20 PowerBASIC programs by Sam, including IconEditor, games and screen savers. Also about 40 GW-Basic programs - mostly graphics and games.

• Shannon's Tools
  Command line utilties written in PowerBASIC (source code provided) - files/directory commands, search files, HTML to text, and more.

• BasicROCKS
  Four page primer on CGI Programming with PowerBASIC.

• Dracula's Powerbasic Units
  Good sized collection of utilities, limited to PB 3.5 for DOS.

• Freeware Tools for PowerBASIC and FreeBasic
  Two tools - Basic Editor and Win32 Resource Linker. The editor shows how to implement syntax highlighting in PowerBASIC.

• Gary Peek's BASIC Source Archive
  Very useful information to help newbies understand some of the more confusing topics in PowerBASIC, plus sourcecode for a few useful PowerBASIC programs.

• KGP Software
  PowerBASIC Utilities Toolkit - useful selection of tools for PowerBASIC programmers

• M4Ware
  Book chapters (5) plus free Visual MetaFourGL for Windows (Visual Designer)

• PowerBASIC Crypto Archives
  Cryptographic emphasis - lots of source code

• PowerBASIC Archives
  About 10 source code examples - graphics (Direct Draw and OpenGL), VB forms to PB, FTP routines and a few others. Releases stopped around PowerBASIC v6.

• PowerBASIC Page
  Source code for a dozen or so graphics, POV, and game apps. Written with PowerBASIC v3.x.

• Shannon's Tools
  About 30 utilities, variety of topics, with source code

• TextPad PowerBASIC Syntax File
  Syntax files for TextPad programmer's text editor. Circa PowerBASIC v6.x.

• TextPad PowerBASIC Syntax File
  Syntax files for TextPad programmer's text editor. Circa PowerBASIC v6.x.

• jcfuller software solutions
  Handful of dated PowerBASIC applications - project utilities, zip interface, and debug print.

• Utility Programs with PowerBASIC
  Command line utilities with source code - hardware, communication, crypto and drive search.

• WikiPedia - PowerBASIC
  Very brief overview of PowerBASIC. Pretty minimal entry as compared to other language coverage.

• QED Software
  Just a couple of downloads with source code

• Ridge Software
  Just a couple of downloads (source code) - registry tool DLL is the highlight.

BASIC Sites
Because PowerBASIC is a BASIC dialect, programmers can find a lot of useful information at sites which cover other BASIC dialects. Conversions may be required, but can be minimal and well worth the time.

The QBasic section of my site has a large BASIC site listing you'll want to check out, including one for the home page for Ethan Winer, a familiar author of BASIC materials.

Visual Basic 6 Sites
Visual Basic code can be very useful to PowerBASIC programmers. The code is easy to read and conversion is not very difficult. All of the following sites offer tutorials on programming topics, source code, sample projects, and programming tools/utilities.

• a1vbcode
  Over 5000 code examples. Forums. Mailing list.

• freevbcode
  Over 3,000 code examples. Forums. Newsletters. Top code listing.

• mvps
  Home for a dozen or more MVPS individuals. Excellent discussion and source code, very broad coverage.

• vbcode
  Over 10,000 code examples.

• andreavb
  Hundreds of examples, controls, tutorials, tips, active forums. Quality mid-sized site.

• vb-helper
  Several hundred code examples, graphics emphasis. A personal favorite of mine.

• vbaccelerator
  Hundreds of examples, projects, controls. Not so large, but good content. Latest updates 2004.

• vbcity
  Forum emphasis (very active), but with a few hundred source code examples.

• vbexplorer
  Hundreds of examples, controls, tutorials, tips, active forums. Quality mid-sized site.

• vbcodesource
  Hundreds of examples. Tutorials. Controls.

Programming Sites - General
Most popular multi-language sites do not cover BASIC dialects, with the usual exception of VB6. These sites do provide source code and sometimes forums, but PowerBASIC programmers will have to search hard to find something of interest. These sites would generally be the last place a PowerBASIC programmer would look. They're very popular, just not with BASIC dialect programmers.

• CodeBeach
• CodeGuru
• CodePlex
• CodeProject
• DevX
• Experts-Exchange
• Planet-Source-Code
• Programmers Heaven

Frequency of Visits
How often should a programmer review favorite sites?

The easy answer is that once every 1 week is plenty often to keep you abreast of the site offerings. If you find a topic of interest, particularly one that applies to a project your are, or will be, working on then more time can be justified. If you were to visit all your favorite sites every day, spending 1-2 hours in the process, then you're there for fun, not for professional reasons (which, of course, is ok - but not necessarily the best use of your time).