I think there should be a qb64 download section too, as qb64 has some advanced 2d functions that would be suitable for games.

Also, to be honest I think qb64 is far better than any qb compatible language out there as of yet (except for qb itself that is).

I'll add a QB64 category. Would you know of any QB64 code contributors?

a

test

Cyperium; I hope you or other users actually start adding QB64 content .. which are NOT the examples found on QB64.net. :-/

I have a feeling not many people are using QB64.

Currently Wisdomdude and me have been using FreeBASIC for a few months. Both being ex-QB'ers we absolutely love FreeBASIC. (And FBEdit)

I just downloaded QB64. I do not agree with the choice someone made to mimic QB45's IDE. (Frankly I think it might be a very very very bad choice). The only group who remotely love and would use a QB IDE is small, and within that group who still would wanna code BASIC *TODAY*, is even smaller. Not to mention that bloody thing sucks up CPU power!!!

My buddy had the following comment after testing it out:

WisdomDude:
QB64 needs a TON of debugging.
and it's never going to surpass what FB has
The only thing it would make it useful, is if you can port old QB games without changing a line of code.

I'd say to a real QB enthusiast, QB64 would be neat since it's a lot like the real QB. But I agree with Marcade. Times are changing, CPUs are faster than they were, and efficiency is important. Because QB runs in DOS, it only uses 640K which gets annoying. FB has EMM to tap into RAM and not set the bar so low. Plus FB translates the BASIC code into ASM and then writes the EXE, one of the most advanced and more efficient ways to build a program.

Don't get me wrong QB64 is a great project but FB goes beyond the call of BASIC.

Yes; QB64 is a great project. Any project like those should be stimulated.

However trying to push it to become a public accepted compiler (like I think FB is) might be too early. If you do it too early, people will experience an incomplete product and never will look at QB64 again.

I agree. I think FB was just well-renowned by word of mouth and just took the BASIC community by storm.

Times are changing and QB64 will both have 100% compatibility with QBasic and will extend on it and of course it will not emulate the 640k limit :), it also uses advanced graphics and sound, with very BASIC like statements. I agree that it is bad for QB64 to be experienced as an incomplete product, but it is actively being developed and for the purpouses of games I think it is advanced enough to suit most needs. Only time will tell though. FB is ok but QB64 is needed for QB compatibility (I'm currently developing a translation of the DirectQB library for use with QB64, imagine my happiness when I got it to run my old directqb game on my XP).

I should note that Galleon is the developer of QB64. Me and many more users are actively supporting this project. It will be open-source when Galleon feels he has added what is needed first.

Hello

DirectQB port. i will go ape if you do that! i love that lib.

there are plenty of genuinely good programs people have uploaded. you should check it out again. as far as compatibility, except for RARELY used stuff (DEF FN to name one), it is entirely compatible. i never much liked DEF FN anyway, so changing those to functions isn't that big of a deal.

Yes, devilkin, there are many more functions to be supported though, but it should run directqb applications that aren't too advanced (no 3D is supported nor bitmapping). I'm constantly developing it though so the abilities not currently supported might be in the future. A prototype of my directqb game Venture can be found in the QB64 samples section on QB64.net. I will upload it here when it is finished!

It has been MUCH improved and is far more compatible than it used to be Marcade. I prefer using it over FreeBasic. I used FreeBasic back in 2007 and wasn't very impressed with it at all.

I was impressed with QB64 though when I found it in early 2009, and feel that before long it will be able to be on par eventually with GLBasic, since cross-compatibility with Mac OS X is now available. As much as I love some of the advantages of the newer languages and OOP, I believe that it is important for people to not get lost in GUI level programming.

I always liked the Quickbasic IDE, and don't see any reason why it shouldn't have been used or added on to as it is. Cyperium has been working on an alternative IDE for QB64 and it's come along beautifully. I think there are more people out there who still love QB than you think. ;-)

You might be interested to know that you can use a command called _LIMIT to help control the amount of cpu cycles per code block.

Hi, i want to download this program

QB64 is available at http://www.qb64.net, we have a very active community there if you have any questions :)

Here's a clickable link to the homepage of QB64: QB64 homepage

After reading all of this, just want to say that although I've never explored the full potential of FreeBasic, I found QB64 to be a lot easier to learn. Ummm ya that's all. It would be nice to find out exactly what both programs offer as opposed to each other.

As far as I know QB64 does have one huge advantage over FB... QB64 has native support for 64 bit computers while FB does not.

It also has the advantage of actively supporting QB 4.5 code and new versions of QB64 will support source from old versions, FreeBasic has a history of changing it's ways so that old code becomes unusable in newer versions. This is very unlikely to happen in QB64, as such I perceive it as much more stable.

FB is more technically advanced and more object-oriented but QB64 is younger and is actively developed to achieve modern tasks in a BASIC friendly way.

Thought it wouldn't to give it a shot?

Can you write what you mean in other words? I don't understand it.

I suspect you mean "Thought I wanted to give it a shot" :) I'm not sure though.

I think it was spam. I notice that some spammers don't post links in their posts but just something simple like, "Great post man!" or "That's just what I needed!" so they can avoid filters and test the integrity of the spam detection. A couple managed to dodge it for now but if they do things like post comments with too many links in them or not enough content, they will be automatically banned.

Ok, yeah I was just curious as to what he meant, used some kind of random word generator perhaps? :)

INTERESTING ANALYSIS! Thanks. I will value your advice for substitute code for DEF FN with example to be used in qb64

As DEF FN isn't yet supported in QB64 you can use FUNCTION just as you could in QB 4.5, substituting DEF FN for FUNCTION should be pretty straightforward.

Example of a function is:

PRINT addition(4,6)

FUNCTION addition (a,b)
calculate = a+b
END FUNCTION

Sorry, "calculate" should be replaced by "addition" inside the function.

I hope this was what you asked for.

/ Hmm is anyone else enicrienepxg problems with the pictures on this blog loading? I'm trying to find out if its a problem on my end or if it's the blog. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.336

I have been using QB64 exclusively for 32/64 bit programming. The only thing missing is support for BIOS function calls. It is very close to being 100% compatible with QB45. It does not support QB71 though. The IDE/compiler can be downloaded from www.qb64.net and solves all major problems with memory restrictions. I have a project posted here called SICK64C.ZIP which demonstrates the capability with QB64.

Je cherche une personne pour transformer un programme qb45 ---> qb64