News

Current XBasic version: 6.2.3 (27 Oct 2002)
(Obsolete versions:6.xxxx)

30-09-2005

I've received some notes about XCompiler not functioning properly for some even though, XC should behave straight forward. XC failed to correctly detect XB environments that were installed from the self-installer. The zip-archive contains an xbvars.bat in it's binary folder by default. The self-installing archive creates this on the fly and does not contain this file. This would XC cause to inform you that no valid XB environment has been found while in fact there was one.
This issue has been cleared. Also an extension has been made to let the user choose the XBasic environment if he/she desires. Or the user can still choose to make XC detect the environment itself
 
Both executable and source code updates are online. Planning to add some simple icon-changer for the application's default icon is in the making, though no specific date, yet the source-code reveals the trick how to use cvtres to make this happen. If you can't wait, do your benefit with it.


1-04-2005
Since the release of XBasic 6.2.3 nothing much changed.
However one of the users made some changes to the PDE, they include a blinking cursor and changes to the configuration settings.
You can read the complete text here and you can download the upgrade here. (source here)
PS:As a little bonus I updated the Xcompiler to the unofficial 6.2.5_jdl (which is 6.2.3 with a few additional functions explained in the readme) Note for XCompiler: You need to manually set the environment variables for XBasic in Windows 2000 to make XBasic compile the source properly. This problem does not occur in Windows XP. 


17-11-2002
Not much news to add currently, besides that recently a new Beta version of XBasic has been released.
XCompiler has not yet been updated to contain the 6.2.3 libraries so some fixes will not be in there if you use XCompiler.
As much as testing XCompiler in Windows XP (I currently stepped over to WinXP) i did not encountered many difficulties using XCompiler in there.
It was however necessary to switch compatability mode to Win9X and then turn it off again. I don't know why this works when encountering problems, but it triggered something to make it work properly.
I hope to release the new 6.3.0 xrp library for XCompiler soon.

27-04-2002
The XBasic group policies for the mailinglist has been changed.
This is to prevent users from receiving spam and virus mails as this happens to occur more and more.
It's sad that the user-list has to be put on a closed base but Vic Drastic (List-owner) and most of the group-members agreed to do it that as nobody is waiting for either spam OR virusses.

In order to post mail to the list you not only need to subscribe, but your first post will have to be approved by Vic before you can send and receive messages to the list from within your own mail-application.

Subscribing and unsubscribing still hasn't changed yet read carefully how to do this.
Some people send messages to the group with the topic "unsubscribe" but that is NOT the way to unsubscribe, however these are the methods to (un)subscribe:
Subscribe:
xbasic-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:
xbasic-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com


07-04-2002
Long time no update,
I'll use the opportunity to settle the remark that Max Reason's version of XBasic is way out of date and obsolete though the site claims to contain the latest and greatest, it hasn't been updated since October 2000.
The reason i mention this has got everything to do with Xcompiler since it's NOT compatible with Max's version of Xbasic.
Please go to xbasic.sf.net for the most up to date and proper version that works with xcompiler.
Today Xcompiler V2.5 Beta has been put online.
One possible breakthrough is the extermination of manual configuration of your xbasic environment variables...
Usually you have to use XBVARS.BAT to set a few environment variables for XBasic to work properly.
With V2.5 i have made my attempt to automate this process without anyone having to worry about that anymore.
If you run the configuration in Windows XP and Xcompiler fails in native XP mode, try to set compatability mode to Win2K or any of the Win9x modes for Xcompiler to work properly (And the XBasic environment!)
Also a small fix has been applied to filter out console related lines properly. There was bug that took care some none-console related lines were removed ALSO when the console mode was checked disabled.

28-01-2002
The Xcompiler got a fix update. First fix was the attempt to alter .def files when compiling executables, the second fix was it's behaviour under W2K. Just take care you set the LIB and INCLUDE environment variable under the advanced tab of the system\system properties pointing to your XBasic LIB and INCLUDE path and put XBasic BIN dir in the path, it should run fine.
If setting environment variables for the system is too hard, you can just call XBVARS.BAT before calling xcompiler.exe (in the same DOS console!)
The updates are available under the "Downloads", "Tools" links in the menu.
If you earlier downloaded the binary, you can proceed by only downloading the upgrade zip (contains only exe)

26-01-2002

For the smart ones who discovered this site earlier on sourceforge,
Yes, I have moved the site to sourceforge as the limitations of freeservers forced me to find space elsewhere.

Now to go back to the order of the day we have two good news points.
The first good news is XBLite in development by David Szafranski.
XBLite will be based upon the XBasic core library but all GUI elements willcome from the Win32 API. Yups, XBlite is for developments of Win tools only.
Currently I have not heard David mentioning a release date but I have seen some examples of how far he is and it looks promising for the programmer that is looking for more rich GUI grids like RTF text and picture grids and so forth.

The second good news is the Extended Runtime Compiler.
The runtime libraries have been put in a repository base.
The repository architecture is setup in a matter that one can more easily analyse the contents of the libraries to figure what code you need to extract from them in order to create a small runtime file or a small independent executable or library.
The best news is that the first beta of the compiler is downloadable from this site and does already a lot: You can create autonomous libraries and runtime dependable libraries, you can even create your own kind of runtime, be it containing the XB library. Further, you can eliminate the xb console completely without needing to call XstHideconsole or starting up your app with the argument "-NoConsole".
The compiler does not yet filter out unused code but I'm working on this.
There is room for improvement and if you want to help here are the sources.

Just read the docs carefully that come with it if you intend to do complex project compilation!
This also means that the outdated runtime library which was online has been removed.

05-01-2002
The xbasic support pages have moved to sourceforge.
As about this site not much will be changed in accordance to what you might expect from a sourceforge project, I will attempt to write a proper searchengine for this site as current one still points to freeservers.

18-12-2001
Nothing really new here on this site except than that Freeservers.com has decided to lower the maximum filesize from 512KB per file to 256K per file.
I have up till January 9nth to either  put my files elsewhere or to pay for "unlimited" filesizes.
I guess finding another server is the option I am going to choose. There are better providers besides freeservers.com so prepare that this site will be moved next year.

Another intresting point taken from the XBasic discussion forum is that David Szafranski is busy figuring out how to set up a source filter in order to reduce the size of the runtime library making it contain only the code that you call in your source-application.  I have not seen anything concretely working so don't put hopes on the idea that this filter will be implemented in the next XBasic release.


03-11-2001
Again minory updates, the Tips and Tricks part per today contains a detailed description of how file I/O works in XBasic (and in different platforms in common sense)
Also the complete site that was downloadable was still the old version.
I had troubles uploading the new one to the webspace provider I'm subscribed to.
The local search engine still seems to be stuck in the query, I'm considering an alternative option I only need a host that allows CGI scripting.


16-10-2001

Minory updates, the FAQ has been updated and a new site for advanced (X)Basic users has been rised...
Check out Ken Minoque's site for more technical details about calling third party DLL's, including your own resources into your executable and how to use them.



2-10-2001

Version 2.00 of the new site has been released...
Not much new added but I hope that you have more comfort navigating through the system.
I tend to keep this site as sober as possible (Only the default Freeservers commercial banners dangling around might fall out of place)

The Java search engine has been replaced by the local search script from Freeservers.
It's not super and it took me a great effort to get the output in the same window.
At this moment I write this text, the site is renewed but it has not been indexed yet so the search-engine is yet referencing to the old (and now non existing) pages.
I hope this reindexing will be done between now and the next several days.