Scriptionary Blog

I don’t know how many times I’ve ran into people that need help with a piece of C code that should run perfectly fine but for some reason it just doesn’t. Of course, after much going back and forward, you find out that the person you’re trying to help is using Borland’s Turbo C compiler version 2.01, released 20 years ago in 1989..

While the compiler is freely download-able from several websites labeled as an “Antique”, it’s really not a great tool to start programming with on modern systems. If you really (really) want to use Turbo C, buy an old 286 and go at it but don’t use your Intel Core i7. Here’s why. PS, this also applies to Turbo C++

1. The compiler is 20 years old, it won’t support the current C99 standard so many things you might have learned, you now have to unlearn in order to get the program working.

2. Turbo C is an MS-DOS compiler, chances are if you are learning C now, you have never used DOS in your life; there’s no reason to go back, nostalgia doesn’t apply to DOS. Furthermore, Windows does not support DOS programs from the 80′s, so you would have to emulate DOS in order to get your programs working properly.

3. There are many free compilers available that are 100% compatible with today’s hardware and not bound by any limitations. Even if your Turbo C compiler is 32 bit compatible, it’s not a great match for your 64 bit CPU and Operating System.

4. You’re stuck on the command line interface with no way out. Even if you make the best command line program for DOS, nobody besides yourself will ever want to use it. Converting your program to Win32 requires a new compiler that will yell at you for using coding practices from 1989 and break your program.

In other words, if the following code compiles without warning, you know you need another compiler.

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
    printf("Hello, World!");
}

Here’s a little tip for US business owners. If you get a document in the mail called: “Annual Minutes Requirement Statement Directors and Shareholders”, do not pay it, this is a scam. The Florida Department of State has now posted a warning about this on its front-page as well.

While this document might look very authentic, in the small print it states:

This product has not been approved or endorsed by any government agency and this offer is not being made by an agency of the government.

Needless to say, you should never send shareholder information to any non-government organization. And your actual annual meeting information should only be addressed to a government organization or posted at SunBiz.org.

The letter that I originally received had the following return address:

COMPLIANCE SERVICES
400 Capital Cir SE, Ste 18321
Tallahassee, FL 32301

Edit:
Thanks to all of the people who have posted a comment, here’s a list of all the street address instances used by this scammer so far, there were more instances reported below in the comment section without addresses. Also, if you happen to have more information or an address that’s not listed, please post it below, it will most certainly help many people.

• California
  P.O. Box 1265
  Studio City, CA 91614-0265
• Florida
  400 Capital Cir SE, Ste 18321
  Tallahassee, FL 32301
• Georgia (1)
  931 Monroe Drive NE, STE A-102 #333
  Atlanta, GA 30308-1795
• Georgia (2)
  Annual Minutes Disclosure Services/Business Processing Division
  5805 State Bridge Road
  Duluth GA 30094
  Phone 866-390-1176
• Georgia (3)
  Annual Minutes Disclosure Services
  5805 State Bridge Road Ste. G–380
  Duluth, GA 30097
• Massachusetts
  Compliance Services
  71 Commercial St. #241
  Boston, MA 02109
• New York
  Annual Minutes Disclosure Services / Business Processing Division
  911 Central Avenue #134
  Albany, NY 12206
• North Carolina
  324 S. Wilmington St.
  Postal Mail Box 407
  Raleigh, NC 27601

Edit 2:
I can’t believe that after more than a year, I’m still receiving comments on this post from people that received the letter. If you got the letter and it has a different address than listed above is on the envelope, post a comment and let us know, since you might be saving someone $125!

Maybe Phoenix will live up to its name and start functioning again soon, until then:

I don’t like Visual Basic, yet in many Microsoft shops, VB is still being used especially in combination with ASP.NET. The problem with Visual Basic is that it’s not very strongly typed. Conventions are often thrown out of the window and Senior VB developers often hold their seniority as experience which, is more fiction than fact.

How many more times do I have to see Functions which don’t return anything and should have been declared as Subs.

Or: Variable 'XYZ' is used before it has been assigned a value.
Or: Variable declaration without an 'As' clause; type of Object assumed.

Ugh. You’d think that people with 15 years of development experience wouldn’t dismiss this kind of stuff and just do the right thing.