XBasic
Encyclopedia
XBasic is a variant of the BASIC programming language that was developed in the late 1980s for the Motorola 88000
CPU and Unix
by Max Reason. In the early 1990s it was ported to Windows
and Linux
, and since 1999 it has been available as open source software with its runtime library under the LGPL license.
Max Reason discontinued his support, and development since has been overseen by Eddie Penninkhof. Together with a few other enthusiastic programmers, XBasic is slowly being further developed and improved.
Version 6.2.3 is the latest stable release, released on 27 October 2002.
s as well as 32 and 64-bit floating point
values. The string datatype is only for 8 bit characters.
It is possible to generate an assembly language
file. XBasic has a Windows only version called XBLite
. Development is at SourceForge
.
' 1. A PROLOG with type/function/constant declarations.
' 2. This Entry function where execution begins.
' 3. Zero or more additional functions.
'
FUNCTION Entry
PRINT "Hello World"
PRINT 2+2
PRINT 44/12
PRINT 33*3
END FUNCTION
Motorola 88000
The 88000 is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Motorola. The 88000 was Motorola's attempt at a home-grown RISC architecture, started in the 1980s. The 88000 arrived on the market some two years after the competing SPARC and MIPS...
CPU and Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
by Max Reason. In the early 1990s it was ported to Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, and since 1999 it has been available as open source software with its runtime library under the LGPL license.
Max Reason discontinued his support, and development since has been overseen by Eddie Penninkhof. Together with a few other enthusiastic programmers, XBasic is slowly being further developed and improved.
Version 6.2.3 is the latest stable release, released on 27 October 2002.
Characteristics
XBasic has signed and unsigned 8, 16 and 32-bit and signed 64-bit integerInteger
The integers are formed by the natural numbers together with the negatives of the non-zero natural numbers .They are known as Positive and Negative Integers respectively...
s as well as 32 and 64-bit floating point
Floating point
In computing, floating point describes a method of representing real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. Numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16...
values. The string datatype is only for 8 bit characters.
It is possible to generate an assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
file. XBasic has a Windows only version called XBLite
Xblite
XBLite is a free Open Source BASIC programming language compiler and development system. It was started in 2001 by David Szafranski in order to provide a Windows exclusive version of the XBasic dialect...
. Development is at SourceForge
SourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
.
Components
- Editor (writing computer code)
- Compiler (creating code)
- Debugger (checking for errors)
- Libraries (ready made 'internal' code to call on)
- GuiDesigner (creates the 'look and feel' of the program)
Example code
' Programs contain:' 1. A PROLOG with type/function/constant declarations.
' 2. This Entry function where execution begins.
' 3. Zero or more additional functions.
'
FUNCTION Entry
PRINT "Hello World"
PRINT 2+2
PRINT 44/12
PRINT 33*3
END FUNCTION