twinBASIC Update: July 25, 2021

Mike Wolfe -

On April 23, 2021, I helped Wayne Phillips introduce the world to twinBASIC at the Access DevCon Vienna conference.  I boldly predicted that twinBASIC (along with the Monaco editor) would replace VBA and its outdated development environment by 2025.  With that goal in mind, this weekly update is my attempt to keep the project fresh in the minds of the VBA development community.

Every Sunday, I will be providing updates on the status of the project, linking to new articles discussing twinBASIC, and generally trying to increase engagement with the project.  If you come across items that should be included here, tweet me @NoLongerSet or email me at mike at nolongerset dot com.

Highlights

Distinct Icons for File Types

The .twin, .bas, and .cls files now have icons with unique colors in VS Code:

  • Red: .twin files get the stock red twinBASIC icon
  • Orange: .cls class modules
  • Blue: .bas standard modules
Screenshot showing the distinct icon colors for twinBASIC code files.

Around the Web

The big news this week is the official announcement of editions, pricing, and pre-order availability.  For all the details, visit the twinBASIC pre-order page.  Read on for a brief summary of the available options.

Edition Comparison

twinBASIC will be available in three different flavors:

  • Standard: 32-bit Windows only
  • Professional: 64-bit Windows support + optimized compilations
  • Ultimate: cross-platform (Linux, Mac, Android) + private email support

Note that 64-bit support is expected in the 4th quarter of 2021 and cross-platform support is expected early to middle of 2022.

Pricing Information

Note: All prices below are annual per developer prices in USD.  Perpetual licensing will not be an option.

  • Standard: free (includes commercial use)
  • Professional: $583.20 / year
  • Ultimate: $864 / year

The twinBASIC pre-order web page has monthly pricing for GBP/EUR/USD.  The amounts above have the 10% annual discount factored in.  They do not have the early-bird discount factored in.  Read below for more info about that.

Pre-Orders and Early-Bird Pricing

Wayne is now accepting pre-orders for the Professional and Ultimate editions of twinBASIC through at least August 31, 2021.

Why would you start paying for features that are not yet available?  Significant long-term discounts.  

By enrolling now, you lock in a 50% discount off the subscription price forever (assuming you maintain the subscription).

Here are the new yearly fees with early-bird discount included:

  • Professional: $291.60 / year
  • Ultimate: $432 / year

Further Details

For questions and additional details on the pricing model, visit the discussion over at the twinBASIC GitHub issues page.

Changelog

Here are the updates from the past week.  You can also find this information by installing the twinBASIC VS Code extension and clicking on the Changelog tab of the extension page:

[v0.10.3472, 25th July 2021]

[v0.10.3471, 25th July 2021]

[v0.10.3455, 24th July 2021]

UPDATE [2021-07-26]: Confirmed that the free Standard Edition does allow for commercial use.