Xblite

XBLite is a free Open Source BASIC programming language compiler and development system. It was started in 2001 by David Szafranski in order to provide a Windows™ exclusive version of the XBasic dialect. XBLite is released under the GNU GPL licensing scheme , Standard libraries are released under the GNU LGPL licensing scheme.

The XBLite syntax is very similar to that of XBasic and somewhat similar to QuickBASIC in that it is a procedural language capable of subs and functions. XBLite also has User Defined Types, 64 bit integer data type and the ability to have multiple modules in order to create an application or game.

XBLite History

XBLite is a project that was started back in 2001. The main idea was to create a language that was based on the XBasic project that was to be exclusively a Microsoft Windows™ only programming language and environment. The first official release (version 1.0.0) was announced on October 2002, and subsequent versions were spread out amongst the last 6 years of development. Each release boasted both bug fixes and new features (to either the language itself and/or the different tools that are available with the XBLite project.

Today the current release is version 2.4.0 of the compiler and version 1.28 of XSEd (The code editor). One of the latest project is a visual GUI designer called vixen. It was originally created by John "prujohn" Evans who released version 0.50a on July 22nd 2006. Currently, Guy gl Lonné develops and maintains the vixen project.

XBLite Development Specific Events

A project called xpeeper is currently being developed by the XBLite team. This aims to give Peephole optimization technology to the XBLite project. The project has been distributed with XBLite since XBLite version 2.3.0. As well, XBLite is itself written in XBLite making it a self hosting compiler. It can compile itself and since version 2.1.0, XBLite incorporates the M4 preprocessor tool.

Xsed, the code editor available with XBLite was developed in XBLite. It is based on the Scintilla project, a widely used editing component. XSed is a full featured editor that allows to work with XBLite source code modules and allows to compile the code right from the editor.

A note worthy of mention is that XBLite generates GoAsm assembly code as it's back end. GoAsm is one of the better optimizing assembly language compilers currently available.

Components

XBLite comes with a complete set of components.

• Compiler (can make executable files, libraries and dynamic linked libraries (DLL) files)
• Code Editor
• Resource Compiler
• Visual GUI Designer called vixen (Beta stage but very usable)

Sample Code

Here is a classic example (A Hello World! program) as it might be coded in XBLite.

' Hello World! In xblite, console mode
PROGRAM "hello"
CONSOLE
DECLARE FUNCTION Entry ()
FUNCTION Entry ()
a$ = INLINE$ ("Hello World!\n\n\n Press Enter to quit ")
END FUNCTION
END PROGRAM

References

External links

• The Official XBLite Website
• The XBLite Forum
• XBLite User Group On Google
• XBLite Book Of Knowledge (B.O.K.)
• Visual XBLite (vixen) project
• The XBasic Project