Easy Beginner's Environment in QT Files

NOTE:
=====
You need to download and run 2 exe's to install ebe.

Installers
==========
There are 2 required installation files: one for the ebe program and one for
the tools required by ebe.  Ebe itself is a 32 bit program and can run on
either 32 or 64 bit Windows systems.  There are 2 versions of the tools: one
for 32 bit systems and another for 64 bit systems.

The ebe installation file has a 3 part version number and the name looks like

    ebe-3.1.0-setup.exe

The ebe tools will change very infrequently and the current version is version
4.1 which results in 2 files

    ebetools32-4.1-setup.exe
    ebetools64-4.1-setup.exe

So download the proper ebe-tools file and run that installation program.
Then run the ebe setup program.  You might later find a newer version of the
ebe setup program which you could install to update ebe.  Maybe every year or
two there might be a new version of the tools, but this is usually not very
important.  Basically this includes compilers which will work well for several
years.

Tools version 3.0 uses gcc version 4.8.1 for 32 bits and version 5.1.0 for
64 bits.  The first is from MinGW and the second from MinGW64.  You might
succeed with an existing version of gcc if it is in the path and simply
execute the ebe setup program.  The separate setup programs are designed
to be relatively independent.

The 32 and 64 bit versions have been tested under 2 versions of Windows 7.
Also the 64 bit version has been tested under Windows 10.

Note that tools version 4.1 is designed for ebe 3.0.18 and later.  In the
Old_files directory is tools version 4.0 which works with ebe 3.0.16.
Hopefully that won't be needed.

Older versions
==============
Here are the Windows installers for the ebe IDE.  There are 2 installers: one for 32 bit Windows and one for 64 bit Windows.  Each installer installs the gcc compiler collection from the mingw sourceforge site.  Ebe itself is a 32 bit application which has been compiled with the Microsoft command line C++ compiler.

Generally it would be a better choice to select the version with the largest version number.  There are usually new features and problems fixed with newer versions.  For example version 2.0.10 includes the first version of the toybox and it is probably more reliable than  2.0.09.  Version 2.0.09 has better support for 32 bit compilations than 2.0.08.

ebe32-2.7.??-setup.exe:  includes 32 bit compilers:  gcc, g++, gfortran

ebe64-2.7.??-setup.exe:  includes 64 bit compilers:  gcc, g++, gfortran

ebe-2.7.??-update.exe: includes just the latest ebe.  This will update
installs from 2.0.08 forward.

Both installers should run fine under 64 bit Windows.  Only the 32 bit installer will work properly under 32 bit Windows.  It would install and ebe would start, but the compilers would not run.

This code has been tested under Windows 7 and 8.  It is unknown whether there are issues with other versions of Windows.

There are still many changes planned for ebe.  In particular the library in the program (bottom icon on the C++ code toolbar) will be growing.  Check back frequently for updates.  The gcc portions are not changing, so using the ebe-2.1.??-update.exe should be a quicker way to udate your software.

Problems
========
The ebe configuration file ".ebe.ini" can be a source of problems.  For example early versions of the config file did not have quotes around file names while later ones do.  This can mean a failure with files/directories with spaces in the name.  So it should be an early step in coping with a problem to remove ".ebe.ini" from the directory you were using.

Repeated installs are leaving the program's directory in the Path variable multiple times.  The update exes are modified to not change the Path.