Category:FutureBasic: Difference between revisions

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FutureBasic began life as Zbasic, a commercial variant of [[BASIC]] for the early Macintoshes, but has grown far beyond that into a mature freeware IDE that, through its FBtoC translator, can be used to compile C and Objective-C [[object-oriented]] code using the clang compiler included with an Xcode installation. It is excellent as a educational tool and for fast prototyping -- especially in Objective-C (Cocoa) by those who prefer programmatic code ~~over~~ the overhead of Xcode. Among its enthusiasts are commercial developers, engineers, professors, doctors, musicians, writers and a host of amateurs who program with FB for the sheer joy of it.

FutureBasic began life as Zbasic, a commercial variant of [[BASIC]] for the early Macintoshes, but has grown far beyond that into a mature freeware IDE that, through its FBtoC translator, can be used to compile C and Objective-C [[object-oriented]] code using the clang compiler included with an Xcode installation. It is excellent as a educational tool and for fast prototyping -- especially in Objective-C (Cocoa) by those who prefer programmatic code without the overhead of Xcode. Among its enthusiasts are commercial developers, engineers, professors, doctors, musicians, writers and a host of amateurs who program with FB for the sheer joy of it.

== FutureBasic Home Page & Download ==

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The FB 6 IDE consists of a syntax-aware editor, and a translator (FBtoC) that converts FB code into C code. The translation is then compiled with the system compiler clang.

Here is a sample program:

Here's a sample program:

<pre>

local fn DoDialog( ev as long )

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== Why FutureBasic? ==

Considering the contempt some programmers have for the BASIC language -- "BASIC ruins programmers" -- it's almost a shame FB has the word "Basic" in its official name. Not only can FB handle BASIC source code, but since it is a front end to clang, it can translate C, Apple's Core Foundation, Objective-C (Cocoa), HTML, XML, SOAP, UNIX Shell, Open GL, etc. This makes it an excellent tool for prototyping -- especially for programmatic Objective-C when the overhead of Xcode is not needed.

Considering the contempt some programmers have for the BASIC language -- "BASIC ruins programmers" -- it's almost a shame FB has the word "Basic" in its official name. Not only can FB handle BASIC source code, but since it's a front end to clang, it can translate C, Apple's Core Foundation, Objective-C (Cocoa), HTML, XML, SOAP, UNIX Shell, Open GL, etc. This makes it an excellent tool for prototyping -- especially for programmatic Objective-C when the overhead of Xcode is not needed.

And best of all it's free with no hidden costs.

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CocoaUI, a collection of header classes that bring ARC (Automatic Reference Counting) to FB, and a fast 64-bit Editor offering syntax highlighting, line numbers and variety of programmer conveniences have since been added to the IDE.

When Apple released Macs running on the ARM M1 chips in early 2021, FB and FBtoC were integrated into a single app that was updated to allow code to be compiled on both the Intel and M1 platforms.

When Apple released Macs running on the ARM M1 chips in early 2021, FB and FBtoC were integrated into a single app that was updated to allow Universal code to be compiled on both the Intel and M1 platforms.

FB has a small but dedicated group of programmers ranging from amateurs to commercial developers. For more information visit the FB home page at: