Your program fixed for FB...

#include "crt.bi" 'remember that you use .bi files
Print "Howdy peeps" + Chr(13) + Chr(10) '\n\r should be \r\n (a DOS ASM programmer could tell you that)
printf( " :-P" ) 'no semicolons at the end of statements in BASIC (PRINT is an exception)
While( 1 = 1) 'whether it is for comparisons or assignments, only one = sign is required
' do not need braces since you always have some form of STATEMENT...END STATEMENT in BASIC
If 1 = 1 Then
Print "Howdy";
ElseIf( 1 <> 2 )
printf( "No way!" )
End If
Wend 'changed closing brace to Wend


The one thing that hasn't changed as far as FB's transformation to C is the old operators. They simply added new operators:
&= (some_string &= 2 is equivalent to some_string = some_string + Str(2), idea from VB maybe?)
+= (some_string += 2 doesn't work, some_string += new_string works, some_numeric += new_numeric works)
-= (some_numeric = some_numeric - new_numeric)
*= (some_numeric = some_numeric * new_numeric)
/= (some numeric = some_numeric / new_numeric; this will perform an arithmetic division operation)
\= (some numeric = some_numeric \ new_numeric; this will perform an integer division operation)
^= (some_numeric = some_numeric ^ new_numeric; raise some_numeric to the new_numeric power)
MOD= (some_numeric = some_numeric MOD new_numeric)
AND=, EQV=, IMP=, OR=, XOR=, SHL= and SHR= function in a similar fashion
SHL ("x SHL n" is "x << n" in C)
SHR ("x SHR n" is "x >> n" in C)
& (some_string = other_string & some_numeric would do some_string = other_string + Str(some_numeric) )
[] (pointer indexing shortcut: "x[i]" is the same as "*(x + i)", string indexing (ASCIIZ, for example)
@ (address-of operator, probably implemented for use with pointers originally, returns memory address of its operand)
* (pointer dereference operator)
. (not comparable to C as far as I can tell, but it reminds me a bit of inheritance in C++)
-> (think pointers or structs, classes or something like that...)
NEW, DELETE (both function just like in C++ - allocates/deallocates memory and destroys contents of memory when deallocating)
** there are some preprocessor operators too, but i don't know how they work since i've never used them in C **

Anyway, that was fun converting that C program to FB. Let's convert it back...
#include <stdio.h> // there is no crt.h afaik

int main (void) // explicit main module, unlike BASIC
{
printf("Howdy peeps\r\n"); // there is no generic "print" function or statement, can't forget semicolons
printf( " :-P" );
while( 1 == 1)
{
if (1 == 1)
print "Howdy";
else if( 1 != 2 )
printf( "No way!" );
// no need for braces because there is only one statement within the scope of the if statement
} // End while
return 0; // program exited without any errors
} // End program