bdbbasic / News: Recent posts

I am pleased to announce that the pre-release file for 0.77, is
now available for download. While this may not be the final
download file for release 0.77, it has been thoroughly tested
on numerous platforms. Platform re-testing is time intensive
and circular in nature. Rather than further hold back the
final release, this pre-release package has been made
available for downloading.

The benefits of using this release over the last one are
so huge that I don't want people wasting any further effort
on the prior release.... read more

This is perhaps the first 'user friendly' release of bdbbasic. Please be sure to read the release notes attached to the download file. There are now more comprehensive online guides for installing on Linux, Cygwin, FreeBSD, Solaris, HPUX and AIX. See https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/bdbbasic

Release 0.75 is primarily a "Scientific Enhancements"
release. Support for the COMPLEX data type is provided
through the use of the Gnu Scientific Library (libgsl).

NEW FEATURES SUMMARIZED:

1. The COMPLEX data type
2. Hundreds of Gnu Scientific Library subroutines,
including the fast fourier transforms.
3. QSORT and BSEARCH subroutines
4. ON ERROR GOTO enhancement.
5. New functions and built-in constants.
6. String lengths to 32-bit lengths.
7. Programs to 32-bit lengths.
8. Important bug fixes.

Release 0.74 introduces a number of exciting new features to the
BDB-Basic environment.

The Major New Features Are:

SHOW TABLE command, to display db schema information.

SHOW OPEN command, to display open database table info,
and information about cursors.

The ENV statement, permitting you to change (set) your
environment variables inside BDB-Basic.

The string <==> numeric data type conversions, including
radix conversions, has been enhanced and cleaned up.
Now it is possible to import hexadecimal strings into
your favourite numeric data type, for example. ... read more

Beta Release 0.73 includes an important improvement
to the programming language, allowing both local and
external module CALLs to be made, with arguments.

See the following two links for more information about
the CALL and SUBROUTINE statements:

http://bdbbasic.wiki.sourceforge.net/CALL_Statement
http://bdbbasic.wiki.sourceforge.net/SUBROUTINE

This release also includes sparse matrix support for
numeric data types.... read more

The current package configures and installs for Darwin 8.11.0 (OS/X Tiger). It likely installs for Leopard as well.

Notes:
1) Ignore the warning at the end of the make (build) that complains about a missing /usr/local directory (you won't see this if you do have this directory)

2) Berkeley DB was installed with --prefix=/usr in this test, but can be installed elsewhere with appropriate ./configure parameters for bdbbasic.

Testing has revealed that Release 0.60 has some issues with
indexes, primary and secondary where strings are variable
in length. This problem has been fixed in cvs and will
be part of the next release.

However, for current release 0.60 users, you can still
get your present apps to work if you use fixed length
strings in place of any VARYING length strings. This
applies to all database content, whether or not it
participates in an index. All other data types currently
supported are ok.... read more

What is new in BDB-BASIC Snapshot Release 0.60
----------------------------------------------

1. The software license has changed to the
GPL2, instead of the LGPL. I generally prefer
the less restrictive license terms but with
this project, I want to avoid commercial firms
repacking the interpreter as part of their
larger package.

This change does not restrict or alter your
freedoms as a user of BDB-BASIC. There are
no restrictions placed upon the code that you
choose to create/execute in the interpreter.... read more

It is possible to get the latest updates from this project
with the use of the cvs command. Everything you need to
know is outlined below for anonymous access (no password
required).

[For a non-visually challenged version of this information visit link http://bdbbasic.wiki.sourceforge.net/AnonCVS\]

You will need the cvs client installed however, which
is available in all Linux and Cygwin distros.... read more