why freebasic is... the way it is

rpgfan3233 :NEWK - http://tinyurl.com/2rypzv, menn - http://tinyurl.com/3dgmuk

mennonite :f*** version 0.16
mennonite :i have version 0.15

rpgfan3233 :hahahahahahahaha

mennonite :i've already used it to compile in linux
mennonite :version 0.16 is a bastardization of the language.

rpgfan3233 :bastardization? how so?

mennonite :0.15 is simply a poor implementation
mennonite :well if you think c and basic are or should be the same language, it's not. if you think they should have some sort of unholy evil offspring, then fb is right for you.

NEWK1234 :I've never been able to compile anything on Linux in FreeBASIC

mennonite :that's because you dont have the gcc compiler installed.
mennonite :youre proabbly using ubuntu, which comes without it.

NEWK1234 :Ah

mennonite :freebasic isnt REALLY a compiler
mennonite :it's a translator that uses the gcc compiler.

NEWK1234 :it did create a file

mennonite :freepascal on the other hand, is a real compiler
mennonite :but even it uses the gcc linker.

NEWK1234 :I guess that's GCC intermediate code
NEWK1234 :Hhhmmmm

rpgfan3233 :freebasic is supposed to go to gcc all the way supposedly... idk though...

NEWK1234 :BRB (taking a piss)

mennonite :it converts basic to c. that's why anything that isn't properly implemented in actual basic is patched using bad c code.
mennonite :that's why freebasic has become more a c language than a basic language, because it started as pure c and started to slowly gain basic functions.
mennonite :and at one point, they kinda gave up and were like... well if we can't do it in freebasic we can do it in c.
mennonite :you can write a program ALL in c and compile it in freebasic. which is fine, but it results in a crappy pseudo language.
mennonite :and that's what freebasic really is.
mennonite :0.16 is where it becomes official
mennonite :0.15 they were still aiming for basic
mennonite :in 0.16, they actually go backwards, where the langauge is less like basic than it was in 0.15. up to and including 0.15, they were still becoming LESS like c and MORE like basic.

NEWK1234 :You can really compile C in FB?

mennonite :you would probably have to remove the ; on the end of each statement.

rpgfan3233 :Let me test really quickly...

NEWK1234 :Interesting
NEWK1234 :I don't code often, but I still like FB
NEWK1234 :Mostly what I like about it is its availability on lots of systems

mennonite :because you don't code often, so you don't get to see how much you have to work around the bad design.

NEWK1234 :I admit that

mennonite :and the bad design doesn't stick to any plan, so the workarounds don't even work from version to version

NEWK1234 :I need to program more

mennonite :sure it's available. it's available anywhere gcc is :)

rpgfan3233 :you can't do it right from fbc

mennonite :because that's what it really is.

rpgfan3233 :fbc has its own internal pre-compilation syntax checker...

mennonite :you can't do basic right from fbc either. what'd you find, rpg?
mennonite :oh yeah, did you try it in version 0.15?
mennonite :and remove the ;

rpgfan3233 :tst.bas(1) : error 68: Array not dimensioned, before: '('
rpgfan3233 :printf("Hello World!")

mennonite :interesting indeed

rpgfan3233 :also, int is a data type in C. in fb, it is a function/keyword/whatever it is supposed to be called

mennonite :well that's an old myth solved
mennonite :unfortunately, it perfectly explains freebasic
mennonite :it just isn't precisely true
mennonite :that part ofit

rpgfan3233 :However, if you were to create a C file and compile and assemble it with gcc, you could finish it with fbc.
rpgfan3233 :gcc -c -o tst.o tst.c && fbc tst.o

mennonite :oh! what if you include stdio.h!

rpgfan3233 :./tst

mennonite :would that make printf() available?

rpgfan3233 :yes, it would. #include "crt.bi"
rpgfan3233 :that should help it along...

mennonite :try it?

rpgfan3233 :haha it works

mennonite :run program!

rpgfan3233 :it works ;-)

mennonite :and that was from the fbc compiler, not using your gcc command?

rpgfan3233 :yeah, crt.bi did the trick

mennonite :haha! MYTH CONFIRMED!