FreeBASIC

FreeBASIC is a free/open source (GPL), 32-bit BASIC compiler for Microsoft Windows, protected-mode DOS (DOS extender), Linux, FreeBSD and Xbox.

When used in its "QB" language mode, FreeBASIC provides a high level of support for program written for QuickBASIC. Many programs written for QuickBASIC will compile and run in this mode with no changes needed. However, for compilation in the FreeBASIC default language mode, most substantial programs will require changes. FreeBASIC is not as related to Microsoft's later Visual Basic language. For that, Gambas is the most relevant free software project.

FreeBASIC is the name for the compiler. It does not come bundled with an IDE. Most users will need to download an IDE such as FBide, FBedit, or Geany.

Features

FreeBASIC is a self-hosting compiler, with roughly 120,000 lines of source code, core only, not including libraries.

It makes use of the GNU binutils programming tools as backends and can produce console and graphical/GUI executables, besides dynamic and static libraries. FreeBASIC fully supports the use of C libraries and partial C++ library support. This lets programmers use and create libraries for C and many other languages.

It supports a C style preprocessor, capable of multiline macros, conditional compiling and file inclusion. However it is not a true preprocessor as it occurs at the same...
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