vunderba a day ago

It really isn't - from the docs themselves:

  FreeBASIC gives you the FreeBASIC compiler program (fbc or fbc.exe),
  plus the tools and libraries used by it. fbc is a command line program
  that takes FreeBASIC source code files (*.bas) and compiles them into
  executables.  In the combined standalone packages for windows, the main
  executable is named fbc32.exe (for 32-bit) and fbc64.exe (for 64-bit)
The magic of QuickBasic was that it was an editor, interpreter, and help system all rolled up into a single EXE file. Punch F5 and watch your BAS file execute line-by-line.
Reply View 26 replies
  • pjmlp 14 hours ago

    A magic also available in Turbo BASIC.

    Ironically Borland gave up competing against Microsoft on BASIC tooling, while Microsoft gave up competing against Borland on Pascal tooling (Quick Pascal).

    Both products where short lived, Microsoft killed Quick Pascal quite quickly, while Borland sold Turbo BASIC, which became Power BASIC.

    Reply View 2 replies
    • orionblastar 14 hours ago

      PowerBASIC is dead; the website no longer works. The old PowerBASIC for DOS abandonware can be found here: https://winworldpc.com/product/powerbasic/3x

      It is a DOS 16-bit program.

      Reply View 1 reply
      • pjmlp 14 hours ago

        Yeah, I lost track of where it went back in Windows 9X days.

        Real BASIC seemed the only alternative to VB that was somehow still market relevant.

        Reply View 0 replies
  • bencollver a day ago

    Wasn't QBasic the interpreter as opposed to QuickBasic the compiler?

    Reply View 18 replies
    • vunderba a day ago

      It's been a long time, but my impression was that QuickBASIC had an interpreter and the ability to compile. Then later on, Microsoft bundled a more limited version called QBasic with later versions of MS DOS which lacked the compiler.

      But all of them (QBasic, QuickBASIC, Microsoft PDS, and even Visual Basic for DOS which almost nobody remembers sadly) had the editor, interpretative execution, and built-in help.

      Reply View 4 replies
      • agf 19 hours ago

        This matches my memory. When I got my dad's old work computer with QuickBASIC on it, and I discovered the compiler, and could write programs other people could "just run", I felt like a real programmer for the first time.

        Reply View 1 reply
        • 90s_dev 10 hours ago

          Yet you were even before that, the moment you made programs work at all.

          Reply View 0 replies
      • 90s_dev a day ago

        I remember VB-DOS, and fondly too. It was magical. I think I used it even before VB3.

        Reply View 0 replies
      • pjmlp 14 hours ago

        Yes that was the case, by the time Visual Basic 5 came to be, its compiler was based on Visual C++ backend.

        Reply View 0 replies
    • [removed] a day ago
      [deleted]
      Reply View 0 replies
    • DCKP 21 hours ago

      All this brings back fond memories of my first programming foray, an ASCII game in QBASIC from Mars and Back: Computer Programming Handbook by Andrew J. Read. So much fun, so much frustration.

      Reply View 0 replies
    • analog31 a day ago

      This is what I recall too. QuickBasic was perhaps BASIC's answer to Turbo Pascal, a relatively lightweight but usable text based IDE. I knew some happy users.

      Reply View 2 replies
    • [removed] a day ago
      [deleted]
      Reply View 0 replies
    • the_af 20 hours ago

      No, QuickBasic was both an interpreter and a compiler. QBasic was just an interpreter.

      Reply View 6 replies
      • klipt 19 hours ago

        "Compiler". Even Visual Basic only compiled to p-code, which had to be interpreted at runtime. Not to fully native code.

        That's why it always ran slower than Delphi.

        Reply View 5 replies
  • anthk 11 hours ago

    Kinda like any Forth. Even PForth has a bundled block editor and a rudimentary help system.

    Reply View 0 replies
  • westurner a day ago

    > The magic of QuickBasic was that it was an editor, interpreter, and help system all rolled up into a single EXE file. Punch F5 and watch your BAS file execute line-by-line.

    That's still how vscode works; F5 to debug and Ctrl-[Shift]-P like CtrlP.vim: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/debugtest/debugging

    FWICS,

    The sorucoder.freebasic vscode extension has syntax highlighting: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sorucode...

    There's also an QB64Official/vscode extension that has syntax highlighting and keyboard shortcuts: https://github.com/QB64Official/vscode

    re: how qb64 and C-edit are like EDIT.COM, and GORILLA.BAS: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41410427

    C-edit: https://github.com/velorek1/C-edit

    Reply View 2 replies
    • vunderba a day ago

      I tried QB64 a couple years ago, but IIRC it's still compiled as opposed to interpretative, e.g. you can't Ctrl-Break and drop into the current executing line of BASIC code unless they've radically changed how it works.

      Reply View 0 replies
    • 90s_dev a day ago

      Rather, QB was the pico8 of the 1990s. Convenient, self-contained, mysterious, quasi-powerful, in-app help menu for the entire language and API, and a few built-in demo games.

      Reply View 0 replies
WalterGR a day ago

> FreeBASIC is like Microsoft's QuickBASIC.

Except that it doesn't emulate Microsoft's QuickBASIC, or ... ?

Reply View 2 replies
  • banana_giraffe a day ago

    It does support "-lang qb" which is designed to specifically limit FreeBASIC to a QuickBASIC compatible dialect.

    Reply View 1 reply
    • TonyTrapp 13 hours ago

      And more specifically, "-lang qb" is more or less how FreeBASIC started out. The more modern dialects came later, and became the default, hence the addition of "-lang qb".

      Reply View 0 replies