freeBASIC (a 32-bit QB-syntax compatible compiler) preview..

[BinarySHOCK]

i couldn't agree with you anymore, well said

[v3cz0r]

well feel free to find other uses for the preprocessor. if anybody needs some additions to that just tell me, i'll see what i can do...

How about macros??! j/k, good enough for now ;)


Just added DATA/READ/RESTORE stmts today, it was more complex than i thought, coz i didn't want to put DATA's contents at code segment, to not confuse the debuggers.. lets see if this weekend i can start trying to compile FB with FB.. i will then put the first version online, so ppl can download and test it, and others can help writing the runtime library.

As FB will be released as GPL (rt lib as LGPL), anyone will be allowed to do any changes they want, or add the compiler to other packages or such (an IDE for example), the only restriction is that a new release must be done as GPL too and the compiler's source-code if changed must be also distributed - or a link to the original sources must be included.

[barok]

Possibly a weekend beta release?!?! Awesome!!! Like Adosorken said, this is THE FUTURE of qbasic! All we need is someone to program the IDE... I'm not qualified.

I posted this up at rpgdx, and some seemed pretty excited about it. (Mandrake said that when it was released he'd port gia over to it, as people would probably rather use qb rather than lua.)

[adosorken]

I would be willing to develop an editor for the project, although it depends on whether or not you want a full IDE (debugging capabilities, etc) or just a "pretty frontend". A full IDE is probably slightly out of my expertise, but GPL is no problem.

Speaking of which...marzec and I chatted on IRC awhile ago and I showed him Bass, which is cross-platform and can likely be used in FB with a header translation. I don't know if he's going to take it on or not, but if not, then I will gladly translate the Bass headers for use in FB.

[Antoni Gual]

V1ctor: Freebasic is great news!

For the IDE it would be easy to adapt Plasma's thing (I don't remember it's name) It's Med IDE + key generator+config files for QB language.

The things to configure are just the calls to compiler and linker, and the error message parsing (to get the IDE highlight the error line) to start. Then it's possible to add syntax coloring (probably Plasma's would fit).

Only MED is shareware, it costs 30$ to get legal Not the perfect solution, but a quick start while waiting for a really useful custom IDE .

[barok]

I completely forgot about med! IMO, it would be something that'd definately work. I was going to replace qb with it, but i guess i couldn't take the change from the blue screen to the windowed screen.

[ShadowWolf]

Mybe im underestmating the complexity of an Editor but it seems pretty simple a txt box and then a shell to the compiler.

you could throw somthing togather in VB6 pretty fast to acted as a tempary editor and if you had time you could make it pretty complex with systex checking. and you could put in all the little eye candy that a edit like DeV c++ has.

[adosorken]

A proper editor is more than just a textbox. For something like this, a proper editor might include syntax coloring and auto-indenting, plus all your standard edit controls. Syntax checking obviously takes longer to implement but it's so worth the effort.

I already have the working editor for OBDS, so all I'd need is the OK and I'd convert it for FB.

[barok]

awesome!

[ShadowWolf]

adosorken isn't this going to be a open source project after the first release. so if it's open source i don't think you need to wait for an ok but you simple can just do it.