Rick Grehan
Years ago, as the C programming language gained momentum on microcomputers, I'd have sworn that BASIC would be swept aside. I have never been more wrong; the success of Visual Basic has seen to that. Now comes XBasic, from Basmark (Cleveland, OH (216) 871-8855; fax, (216) 871-9011).
XBasic is a cross-platform compiler with a full-blown graphical integrated development environment (editor, debugger, and GUI-builder) that boasts -- among other things -- of being a 32/64-bit implementation of BASIC. It claims "64-bit-ness" thanks to its GIANT and XLONG data types. The former is a true 64-bit integer. The latter is a "machine-dependent" 64-bit integer (e.g., XLONGs are 32 bits on 32-bit machines, and 64 bits on 64-bit machines). Currently, XBasic runs on Intel CPUs only. Basmark claims future releases for PowerPC, RS6000, SPARC,
and Alpha versions, where 64-bit data types can be handled natively will be released later in 1995.
XBasic's platform independence is obvious, even with a casual glance. I experimented with XBasic on Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (Basmark has versions for Window 95, Window NT, OS/2 Warp, and 386 Unix), and none of the buttons, scroll bars, and fonts looked like Windows components. Still, I had no trouble navigating the development environment.
XBasic's GUI Designer is as good as any visual development tool I've seen. Click on a toolbar and up pops an empty window. With a few clicks and drags, you populate the window with buttons and scroll bars; then click another toolbar button, and XBasic pours into your program the source code template for initializing and drawing your window. This code amounts to a callback function, and it includes empty CASE statements corresponding to the window's widgets, including buttons, scroll bars, and others. Flesh out the CASE statements with code, and you can have
a working program up and running in a matter of minutes.
Though XBasic is a compiler, the system's rapid compile cycles and integrated debugger give you all the benefits of an interpreted environment. You can build stand-alone executables, and as proof of this the engineers at Basmark told me that XBasic is--get this--written in itself.
I won't kid you: XBasic still has some rattles that need tightening. The latest release notes admit that there are "memory leaks" in the Windows version of the package. (Basmark says a version that fixes the memory leak should be available by mid-1995.) If you keep XBasic open too long, you have to shut down Windows and restart to get the memory back. XBasic doesn't currently support OLE controls or 16-bit VBXes. However, company officials say the ability to host OLE controls may be added later this year.
Still, XBasic brims over with potential. The Professional Edition (which I tested) is $249 for one user. If working with the GUI Designer is any indicat
ion of XBasic's capabilities, this should make for a powerful programming package.
XBasic Accessory Goes with Everything
screen_link (58 Kbytes)
Basmark's XBasic support for 64-bit integers and potential portability to CPUs other than x86-compatible processors is intriguing, but the Windows version needs fine tuning.
64 Bits of BASIC
