XBasic

Excellent general-purpose programming language, with Basic syntax. Very fast, even when running in interpreted mode under the PDE (program development environment). Huge program and data capacity, I never found its limits. Has a vast variety of string and file handling functions. Has all the features and structures one could want in a full-featured Basic. I'm a self-taught programmer, not an expert, learned with BBC Basic (which I still rate as the cleanest, easiest Basic ever, but only available on Acorn/BBC computers). On PC's I used IBM/GWbasic, then QBasic. I wrote a little hack for a friend which searched, read and displayed car part numbers from a ~1 MB database, this steadily grew into an inventory/ordering program, and got bigger and bigger - it got rewritten for QBasic, then QuickBasic, eventually seriously outgrew QuickBasic (at compile time I was combining four source code chunks, each of which I first had to run through a little hack to strip out all comments etc just to squeeze it down to 64k so QB wouldn't barf on the files, plus two 'library' chunks - in short, QB was being stretched to its very limit). Went searching for something better and found XBasic. Took a bit of rewriting but it was worth it, source code is now ~300k, but I've never had to worry about the size of program code or data since. The PDE is great for development, runs fast, only reason I ever bother compiling is so I have a standalone .exe file to distribute. And it uses plain-language text files for source code, making it very easy to print out or edit, either in the PDE's editor or any text editor.

I used XBASIC for my hobby programming needs for at least 15 years. I'm old school and learned BASIC in the 80's and had been doing Quick BASIC in the late 90's. But I wanted faster programs. And I wanted Windows programs. I looked into C at the time but it frightened me. I found XBASIC and it had features that really appealed to me - fast compiled EXE's, Windows GUI, cross-platform, all-in-one development environment, and an active support email list. And off I went. XB is still very BASIC-like in syntax but has certain features reminiscent of C programs. I'd almost call it a hybrid. Although my needs forced me away from the language, there are certain features that are solidly very strong. Many of my programs involved reading/writing/converting database formats and analyzing the data. XB is very robust in that regard. Granted, I eventually outgrew the language (couldn't get OpenGL to work well) and have since moved on to C/C++, I am to this day still subscribed to the email list because I hold a fondness for the language. And it's great to see that a new group of folks have taken the reigns and are working to maintain and update the language for the modern day. And who knows? I may still be able to contribute again some day. XBASIC was important in my development as a self taught hobby programmer. It taught me things that helped me to transition to C/C++ and graphical user interfaces. I am not sure that I would have grasped C as easily without the transition through XB. It served me well. If BASIC languages like PureBASIC aren't good enough for your needs, give XBASIC a try. Once past the normal transition period, you'll find it much more powerful.

Excellent. I have used it for going on 20 years and to date xbasic has not once let me down. It's fast, it's relatively easy to learn and there are sufficient docs online to help you along. I have successfully used it with sqlite3 and created an interface to a database that I have been using for 10 years now. Never once has it failed me. It may need an update or two but for a language in use for more than 20 years, the old lady is beautiful. Not many programmers left to assist with her, but those of us that are still active will help wherever we can!

The owner of the Xbasic page Eddie Pinninkhof has contacted me and added me as an administrator for this site. Eddie has also kindly said he would remain as an administrator for a while. Thank you Eddie. David Silverwood has kindly agreed to join me as an administrator, thank you David. The latest versions have been uploaded to Sourceforge and are also available from the GitHub xbwlteam thank s to Robin Warner: ( xbasic-6.3.26-A-windows210724 ) (xbasic-6.3.26-A-Linux210724-tar-gz) In these releases Robin has included the entire HTML (not updated) documentation, the updated Quick Reference guide, and software and examples of his Function Maps designed to assist programmers who want to change and recompile the programming language. YaHoo has shut down many (all unprofitable?) user groups including the Xbasic user group. If you have questions, problems, or ideas about programming with Xbasic, check out the new Xbasic user group: ( groups.io/g/MaxReasonsxBasic) We have several very experienced programmers who can help: We are looking for more programmers who would be interested helping maintain and update the program. Cheers Hugh

What a piece of crap! No support, no updates, no response to emails and the documentation is still an incomplete draft from 1996!? I recommend PureBasic, which is under active development and up to date with all major operating systems.