FreeBASIC Version 1.04.0 released

[Paul Squires]

http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23986

I got my copies

[Joerg B.]

Hello Paul

Thank you for the info!

[Dennis Hoskins]

I would like to start exploring FreeBASIC.  Can anyone recommend a good way to install and configure the windows versions to easily allow use of both the 32-bit and 64-bit compilers?  Thanks,
Dennis

[José Roca]

I simply have unzipped the packages in two folders called FreeBasic32 and FreeBasic64, preserving the tree structure.

[Klaas Holland]

I have 3 different folders

1. FreeBASIC32   : for the 32 bits version
2. FreeBASIC64   : for the 64 bits version
3. FF-FB377        : for FireFly FreeBasic version

In FireFly - Tools - Environment options - FreeBASIC Windows you those the FBC compilers for 32 and 64 bit.

Now you can start a new project or open an existing one and
choose in the Project Properties of FF which compiler you want to use.

Success
Klaas

[Dennis Hoskins]

Thanks Jose and Klaas.
I wasn't sure if it would be that simple.
Dennis

[José Roca]

Now that I have played enough with this language, I don't think I will do much more with it.

The only advantage is that it is easy to learn because the syntax is very similar to PowerBASIC, but it lacks features that are fundamental to the kind of programming that I have been doing with Windows, mainly support for OLE strings (both ansi and unicode), variants, COM and structured exception handling.

FreePascal looks more suited to me, but the learning curve will be steeper.

[Paul Squires]

 

[José Roca]

I know that 99.99% of PBERs don't use structured exception handling, but they should.

If I write a class, I should be able to raise exceptions in case of error. Otherwise, I have to store the result in a variable (making the class thread unsafe) and checking it continuously; or, writing ansi C-style, with each method returning a result code and having to check it, which not only is annoying, but also prevents to write methods or procedures that return another value and having to use a byref parameter to get that value.

Without support for OLE strings, variants and COM classes, working with COM is a real pain. I know it very well because I did it with PowerBASIC 6.1, which at least had ansi OLE strings. With FreeBasic is even worse. If you use a FreeBasic class for a events dispatch interface, you have to manage yourself the reference counts and unpack the values from an array of variants, which, trust me, is not a tasteful dish without native support for variants and OLE strings.

FreeBasic is not well suited to work with Windows, unless you don't care about COM, ignoring 2/3 of the technologies that Microsoft provides, and you don't care about Unicode, ignoring the greatest part of the world. I wonder how many Russians, Indians, Arabs, Chinese, etc., etc., etc. use this compiler.

Too primitive for my needs.