FreeBASIC is an open source, freely distributed and cross-platform software project designed to act as a standalone and easy to use BASIC compiler that features a syntax very similar to the Microsoft QuickBASIC, VBDOS, PDS and QuickBASIC compilers/interpreters and it’s targeted at BASIC programming under several GNU/Linux operating systems.
Features at a glance
Key features include pointers, clean syntax, inline assembly, unsigned data types, user defined types, arrays, enums, pre-processor, as well as numeric-only optional function arguments. The project is designed to create libraries, objects, shared libraries, DDLs, as well as GUI and console executables. It is portable and it’s optimized for code generation.
Command-line options
After installing the FreeBASIC compiler on your computer, you will be able to run the program from an X11 terminal window using the “fbc” command, which includes a wide range of command-line options, such as the ability to read more command-line arguments from a given file, set the target architecture, set the ASM format, create share libraries and DLLs, as well as to set the target FPU.
In addition, users will be able to display the name of the target or host system, enable function profiling, preserve temporary and final ASM files, select the win32 subsystem, set the XBE display title, pass various options to gcc, as and ld, write out only .asm or .c files, select the speed and accuracy of the floating-point, set the optimization level, link in a library, select FreeBASIC dialect and use thread-safe FreeBASIC runtime.
Under the hood and supported OSes
The project is a programming language that is written in the BASIC, C and Assembly programming languages. It is officially supported with source and binary archives on the GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows and DOS operating systems. Both 64-bit and 32-bit hardware platforms are supported at this time.
