PowerBASIC
Encyclopedia
PowerBASIC is the brand of several commercial compiler
s by Venice, Florida
-based PowerBASIC Inc. that compile a dialect of the BASIC
programming language
. The DOS versions have a syntax similar to that of QBasic
and QuickBASIC
, while the Windows versions utilize a standard BASIC syntax that can be combined with calls to the Windows API
similar to other Windows programming languages. The first version was published as BASIC/Z; later it was distributed by Borland
as Turbo Basic
; and since 1989 it has been known as PowerBASIC.
published it as Turbo Basic
. In 1990, it was reborn as PowerBASIC.
and supports DOS
3.30 and all later versions.
series and the Windows NT
series of operating systems, including Windows Vista
, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista
and Windows 7. PBCC applications can use Dynamic Link Libraries. The compiler is packaged with an IDE
including an editor and stepping debugger
.
No knowledge of Windows programming is required to create character mode or limited graphical applications with this compiler. However, access to the Windows API
and Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLS) from third parties is possible. These resources can be used to create applications with the Windows graphical user interface
in addition to the basic console applications. Common Gateway Interface
executables can also be compiled using PBCC
It is not possible to compile DLLs with PBCC.
series and the Windows NT
series of operating systems, including Windows Vista
, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista
and Windows 7. PBWin can create Dynamic Link Libraries. PBWin applications can read Dynamic Link Libraries.
The compiler is packaged with an IDE
including an editor and stepping debugger
.
applications can be created either by using the Windows API
, or by using the inbuilt DDT language extensions. These comprise a collection of BASIC statements which appear to wrap Windows API
functions, particularly in the area of the creation and handling of dialog boxes and child controls. Less coding is required to create a DDT application than to create a similar one using the Windows API
. DDT programming and programming using the Windows API (known as SDK style as in Microsoft Windows SDK) are not mutually exclusive.
design tool, is available as an add-on for PowerBASIC for Windows. It produces source code using the DDT language extension to create forms using the Windows graphical user interface
.
This is a example of a PBCC hello world program. By default PBCC creates a console at run time for displaying output.
An PBWin example of "Hello World". In contrast to PBCC, PBWin does not create any windows on program start-up to support printing of the Hello World text output. However a dialog box can be created to display the message without extra lines of code.
in the form of COM
classes. In-process and out-of-process COM Servers can also be built using these compilers.
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
s by Venice, Florida
Venice, Florida
Venice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 estimates, the city had a population of 21,015. It is noted for its large snowbird population. Its newspaper is the Venice Gondolier Sun...
-based PowerBASIC Inc. that compile a dialect of the BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
. The DOS versions have a syntax similar to that of QBasic
QBasic
QBasic is an IDE and interpreter for a variant of the BASIC programming language which is based on QuickBASIC. Code entered into the IDE is compiled to an intermediate form, and this intermediate form is immediately interpreted on demand within the IDE. It can run under nearly all versions of DOS...
and QuickBASIC
QuickBASIC
Microsoft QuickBASIC is an Integrated Development Environment and compiler for the BASIC programming language that was developed by Microsoft. QuickBASIC runs mainly on DOS, though there was a short-lived version for Mac OS...
, while the Windows versions utilize a standard BASIC syntax that can be combined with calls to the Windows API
Windows API
The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was formerly called the Win32 API; however, the name "Windows API" more accurately reflects its roots in 16-bit Windows and its support on...
similar to other Windows programming languages. The first version was published as BASIC/Z; later it was distributed by Borland
Borland
Borland Software Corporation is a software company first headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, Cupertino, California and finally Austin, Texas. It is now a Micro Focus subsidiary. It was founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn.-The 1980s:...
as Turbo Basic
Turbo BASIC
Turbo Basic is a BASIC compiler and dialect originally created by Robert "Bob" Zale and bought from him by Borland. When Borland decided to stop publishing it, Zale bought it back from them, renamed it to PowerBASIC and set up PowerBASIC Inc...
; and since 1989 it has been known as PowerBASIC.
History
The first version was published as BASIC/Z, the very first interactive compiler for CP/M and MDOS. Later it was extended to MS-DOS/PC-DOS, and in 1987 BorlandBorland
Borland Software Corporation is a software company first headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, Cupertino, California and finally Austin, Texas. It is now a Micro Focus subsidiary. It was founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn.-The 1980s:...
published it as Turbo Basic
Turbo BASIC
Turbo Basic is a BASIC compiler and dialect originally created by Robert "Bob" Zale and bought from him by Borland. When Borland decided to stop publishing it, Zale bought it back from them, renamed it to PowerBASIC and set up PowerBASIC Inc...
. In 1990, it was reborn as PowerBASIC.
Compilers
PowerBASIC programs are self-contained and do not require a runtime file to execute. In all versions of the compiler the applications are compiled with no external libraries.PowerBASIC for DOS (PBDos)
PBDOS includes an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
and supports DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
3.30 and all later versions.
PowerBASIC Console Compiler (PBCC)
PBCC is a 32-bit compiler, compatible with the Windows 9xWindows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced since 1995, which were based on the original and later modified Windows 95 kernel...
series and the Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
series of operating systems, including Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Windows 7. PBCC applications can use Dynamic Link Libraries. The compiler is packaged with an IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
including an editor and stepping debugger
Debugger
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program that is used to test and debug other programs . The code to be examined might alternatively be running on an instruction set simulator , a technique that allows great power in its ability to halt when specific conditions are encountered but which...
.
No knowledge of Windows programming is required to create character mode or limited graphical applications with this compiler. However, access to the Windows API
Windows API
The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was formerly called the Win32 API; however, the name "Windows API" more accurately reflects its roots in 16-bit Windows and its support on...
and Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLS) from third parties is possible. These resources can be used to create applications with the Windows graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
in addition to the basic console applications. Common Gateway Interface
Common Gateway Interface
The Common Gateway Interface is a standard method for web servers software to delegate the generation of web pages to executable files...
executables can also be compiled using PBCC
It is not possible to compile DLLs with PBCC.
PowerBASIC Compiler for Windows (PBWin)
PBWin is a 32-bit compiler compatible with the Windows 9xWindows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced since 1995, which were based on the original and later modified Windows 95 kernel...
series and the Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
series of operating systems, including Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Windows 7. PBWin can create Dynamic Link Libraries. PBWin applications can read Dynamic Link Libraries.
The compiler is packaged with an IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
including an editor and stepping debugger
Debugger
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program that is used to test and debug other programs . The code to be examined might alternatively be running on an instruction set simulator , a technique that allows great power in its ability to halt when specific conditions are encountered but which...
.
Dynamic Dialog Tools (DDT) component of PBWin
Graphical user interfaceGraphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
applications can be created either by using the Windows API
Windows API
The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was formerly called the Win32 API; however, the name "Windows API" more accurately reflects its roots in 16-bit Windows and its support on...
, or by using the inbuilt DDT language extensions. These comprise a collection of BASIC statements which appear to wrap Windows API
Windows API
The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was formerly called the Win32 API; however, the name "Windows API" more accurately reflects its roots in 16-bit Windows and its support on...
functions, particularly in the area of the creation and handling of dialog boxes and child controls. Less coding is required to create a DDT application than to create a similar one using the Windows API
Windows API
The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was formerly called the Win32 API; however, the name "Windows API" more accurately reflects its roots in 16-bit Windows and its support on...
. DDT programming and programming using the Windows API (known as SDK style as in Microsoft Windows SDK) are not mutually exclusive.
PB Forms
PowerBASIC Forms, a graphical user interfaceGraphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
design tool, is available as an add-on for PowerBASIC for Windows. It produces source code using the DDT language extension to create forms using the Windows graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
.
COM Browser
The PowerBASIC COM Browser is an application that exposes the Interfaces, Methods, and Properties of COM Objects, as described by type-library files. The PowerBASIC COM Browser serves to export an Interface Structure of a COM Object for early-binding purposes in PowerBASIC code, and to provide syntax reference and context-help on the Interface members exposed by a COM Object. The COM Browser currently ships with PBWin.Characteristics
PowerBASIC is a native-code BASIC compiler whose reported merits are its simplicity of use and its speed compared to other languages.Hello World
Hello world is used to give a very small example of the syntax used by a programming language and is often the smallest possible program for any giving programming language.FUNCTION PBMAIN
PRINT "Hello, World!"
END FUNCTION
This is a example of a PBCC hello world program. By default PBCC creates a console at run time for displaying output.
FUNCTION PBMAIN
MSGBOX "Hello, World!"
END FUNCTION
An PBWin example of "Hello World". In contrast to PBCC, PBWin does not create any windows on program start-up to support printing of the Hello World text output. However a dialog box can be created to display the message without extra lines of code.
Object Oriented Programming
PBWin and PBCC support optional Object-Oriented ProgrammingObject-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
in the form of COM
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
classes. In-process and out-of-process COM Servers can also be built using these compilers.
User Community
PowerBASIC provides an online forum for users in a Peer-to-Peer context to share knowledge and ask questions about programming with PowerBASIC. On 4 January 2011 the forum had 4,873 members and contained 45,379 threads comprising 359,962 posts subscribed since August 26, 1998. The Source Code Forum contained 3,420 threads. Source: vBulletin statistics from the forum on 4 January 2011.Third Party Support
- José Roca Software provides tools, forums, libraries, controls, headers, examples and articles on Windows programming with the PowerBASIC compilers.
- Börje Hagsten's Files