thinBasic 1.8.0.0

[ErosOlmi]

thinBasic 1.8.0.0 is out
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_1.8.0.0.zip

This is the last Win9x compatible version.
For those who have followed thinBasic beta phase development, this is just a summary of all the changes (many hundred) that have been developed during the last year.
If no important bugs will be found in next few days, I will officially release version 1.8.0.0 in main thinBasic web site.

Compared to latest thinBasic beta 1.7.10.3 this version has:

Core: an important fix on STATIC variables
iComplex module: added new function
thinAir: added option to activate/deactivate keywords codetips while typing
TBGL module: update to the latest available on SVN server
OXYGEN module: update to the latest available on SVN server


Attention:
this version has a slightly different directory structure in \SampleScripts\TBGL\ so it is highly recommended to uninstall any previous thinBasic version you have currently installed.

Other updated files:

.chm help http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_Help(Chm).zip
(not necessary because already included into thinBasic setup)
.pdf help http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_Help(PDF).zip
.html help http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_Help(HTML).zip


Regards
Eros

_________________________________________________
PS: an immense "thank you very much" to all of you that during the last year have helped thinBasic project in many different ways.

[D.J.Peters]

i will give it an try is the project feature now usable ?

Joshy

[ErosOlmi]

No project feature has been removed because it is an important feature and I want it working correctly.
So I will work on it in next thinBasic 2.x

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks Eros :),

Stan, Frank, Denis, I re-arranged the TBGL SampleScripts structure to be more easy to navigate and explore, I hope you will like it. Some examples were added as well.


Petr

[D.J.Peters]

i don't know is it a new version of Oxygen
or the new thinBasic release
some scripts creashes here ?

for example try

\thinBasic\SampleScripts\Oxygen\Physics

Joshy

[Michael Hartlef]

Thanks Eros for the info. So this will be then the last TB 1.x version, right?

As you removed the project feature from 1.8, the thinAir help file needs quite a change now and also looses quite a bit. So I repeat myself and have still the oppinion that it is better to remove the thinAir help file and just ship TB with the old version again. I think that there will be so many chances still, that a manual with wrong information will be worse than no manual. And also the distribution becomes smaller again.

Also reading the recent TB OOP discussion on GOOGLE WAVE, I get the impression that there is a huge interest in thinBasic 2 turning into a .NET language from some of your key supporters. If TB turns into this direction, then it needs a quite a change in TA's fucntionlities too.

Another question: In another topic I read a reply from you towards a new member here regarding the supported SDK's. I can't find that topic anymore but I would like to ask if I got that correct. FreeBasic and PowerBasic are the only supported SDK's at the moment, right?

[Michael Hartlef]

i don't now is it a new version of Oxygen
or the new thinBasic release
some scripts creashes here ?

for example try

\thinBasic\SampleScripts\Oxygen\Physics

Joshy


Yes, that crashes for me too.

[ErosOlmi]

i don't know is it a new version of Oxygen
or the new thinBasic release
some scripts creashes here ?

for example try

\thinBasic\SampleScripts\Oxygen\Physics

Joshy


Ok, thanks
I will recheck Oxygen examples I'm distributing with the one present in SVN server and see.
This is a 1.8 preview that serve to finally test it before definitive release.

[ErosOlmi]

Thanks Eros for the info. So this will be then the last TB 1.x version, right?

Yes, Michael. When finally released this will be the last thinBasic1.x release.
If any important bug will be found in 1.8 I will try to fix it but just that.





As you removed the project feature from 1.8, the thinAir help file needs quite a change now and also looses quite a bit. So I repeat myself and have still the oppinion that it is better to remove the thinAir help file and just ship TB with the old version again. I think that there will be so many chances still, that a manual with wrong information will be worse than no manual. And also the distribution becomes smaller again.

I like your thinAir Help. I do not care if something is missing or incomplete because your help is much better than previous one.
If there will be a better version I will be happy to use it.





Also reading the recent TB OOP discussion on GOOGLE WAVE, I get the impression that there is a huge interest in thinBasic 2 turning into a .NET language from some of your key supporters. If TB turns into this direction, then it needs a quite a change in TA's fucntionlities too.

Do not worry about that. For the moment (and here moment means years) I will remain on unmanaged code :D
thinBasic is developed almost 99% using PowerBasic and I will remain with it. There is no .Net version of PowerBasic so there will not be any .Net thinBasic version. I hope PowerBasic will release a 64bit version of their compiler so maybe there will be a 64bit version of thinBasic.

What you see on Google Wave are ideas, thoughts, brainstorming, friends discussion. And they are very interested because exchanging ideas is always the best way to think to new ways of doing things. More brains are always better than just one. What other better way than having many and completelly different views of the same subject for getting the best at the end?

What is really in my mind at the moment for future versions of thinBasic is to expand UDT in order to have some kind of OOP classes. It is an area where I'm quite sure I can get some results and, consequently, give more power to thinBasic script. In any case nothing just round the corner.





Another question: In another topic I read a reply from you towards a new member here regarding the supported SDK's. I can't find that topic anymore but I would like to ask if I got that correct. FreeBasic and PowerBasic are the only supported SDK's at the moment, right?

I think post is this one: http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?topic=3271.msg24491#msg24491

No, it is not exactly that way. What I can say at the moment is that developing thinBasic modules using PowerBasic and/or FreeBasic is something I can support very easily so I suggest to remain with PowerBasic and/or FreeBasic.

Instead using the other SDK like C or iBasic or Delphi is for me very difficult to support because I'm not very fluent in C (Roberto was my C friend), iBasic is not anymore with us (but I see there are some movements) and Delphi is not in my current development knowledge.

But if someone would like to handover any SDK in any other programming language I will be happy to support the interfaces but not the user support.


Ciao
Eros

[Michael Hartlef]

thanks for the info.

[sblank]

Thanks Petr... I like it very much!

And thanks for the update Eros!

Stan



Thanks Eros :),

Stan, Frank, Denis, I re-arranged the TBGL SampleScripts structure to be more easy to navigate and explore, I hope you will like it. Some examples were added as well.


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks Stan,

the GBuffers are documented now as well.

Mike, as Eros said, your help is much better than what was there before, I think it should stay.


Petr

[kryton9]

Thanks for the updates guys.

Eros, I would have no problem with removing any discussion about .net and future development off of the forums here that I might have made or added. Before, we didn't have something like google wave to throw out wild ideas and fantasy wish lists and with so many new users coming to thinBasic, those posts will only cause confusion.

I will do a search and try to remove any posts with my wild wishes, but in case I miss or can't delete, please feel free to do so, or any of the other forum moderators.
Sorry, you guys know how excited I get with stuff.

[ErosOlmi]

Kent,

exchanging ideas is for me always, always, always a pleasure even when at first that ideas are too extreme or seem crazy.
At the end, many improvements come out from this kind of brainstorming. thinBasic started exactly from something like that. And I'm sure it is the same for many other aspect in the world.

On the other side I have to respect thinBasic users and their time investment spent in/with thinBasic.
So part of my job in thinBasic is to mediate between new development and compatibility/reliability for future. Sometimes I would like too to make a sort of ... jump but I cannot. Would you follow a project that continue to ... jump here an there?

Sometimes I find myself to read again things written many months before here in forum and now in Google Wave or even on paper written by myself and ... guess what? Ideas expressed a lot of time ago and maybe not understood at that time get an incredible new light later.

So, please, no reasons why to delete anything. Instead, continue the way you are!
Eros

[kryton9]

Thanks Eros. I can't change, but on the other hand I don't want to confuse anyone.... so if anyone reads any of my posts, know that I am not a core thinBasic developer, so don't let my statements of ideas or wishes be interpreted as actual thinBasic direction. But thanks again Eros for the freedom!

[ErosOlmi]

thinBasic 1.8.0.0 updated
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_1.8.0.0.zip

A last (I hope) update to thinBasic 1.8.0.0 before its final official release.


Core: fixed a STATIC variables problem it was supposed to be already fixed when STATIC is used at global scope level
thinAir: fixed #INCLUDE statement when included file has pseudo variables %APP_... in path
UI Module: added some new wrappers of Windows API function mainly working on GDI, the function whose name starts with Win_...
UI Module: added PIXELFORMATDESCRIPTOR UDT as native structure
TBGL module: update to the latest available on SVN server
OXYGEN module: update to the latest available on SVN server with all script examples


Updated also all help files:

.chm help http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_Help(Chm).zip
(not necessary because already included into thinBasic setup)
.pdf help http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_Help(PDF).zip
.html help http://www.thinbasic.biz/projects/thinbasic/thinBasic_Help(HTML).zip


Regards
Eros

[D.J.Peters]

good to know thanx for the fast update.
why you post the compiled *.chm help file as extra link
isn't it the same as in the download ?

Joshy

[ErosOlmi]

good to know thanx for the fast update.
why you post the compiled *.chm help file as extra link
isn't it the same as in the download ?

Joshy


Because when I will finally release the version in official thinBasic web site, we have a section where people just looking for what is thinBasic can download only the help file and check if thinBasic is what they are searching for: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?option=com_jdownloads&Itemid=95&task=viewcategory&catid=4

[christianssen]

Thanks Eros ,

Stan, Frank, Denis, I re-arranged the TBGL SampleScripts structure to be more easy to navigate and explore, I hope you will like it. Some examples were added as well.


Petr

thanks to all working for this new update. I will check it today. good to hear about new features and help files too. I have six examinations in two weeks. profs and teacher have no mercy with us :) hope I find more time to explore thinbasic 1.8.0.0.

bye, sincerely, denis

[ErosOlmi]

Found a bug again in STATIC variables when used inside recursive functions
I'm checking and fixing it.

Eros

[ErosOlmi]

thinBasic 1.8.0.0 has been published as official latest version in main thinBasic web site in order to reduce confusion.

I'm working at the next version that will bring few fixes, few new features and possibly a great improve for those developing thinBasic modules ;)

[Gregory]

Greetings. First I would just like to say thanks for a great language.I have a quick question about the license of thinbasic though which i hope has not been asked before. I see some of the modules are licensed differently to the main language and was just wondering how this would affect distribution on a commercial scale? I have always been terrible understanding licenses so would be gratefull if anyone could explain it to me. Thanks again and keep well.

[Petr Schreiber]

Welcome Gregory!,

I think there are just 2 (from the total of ~40) modules with "specific" license:

TBASS
iComplex


The first one, used for advanced sound management, can be used for free in non-commercial applications.
The second one can be used in public scripts only if you distribute them under GPL.

When you create EXE from your script, only the modules it uses are bundled with it. That means, if you don't use the mentioned 2 modules, you can freely distribute the final EXE, even for commercial purposes, without any complication.

In case you use TBASS, you have to pay fee to the authors of the library the module is based on. For shareware it is about 100 EUR, for more info please look here: http://www.un4seen.com/


Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

thinBasic 1.8.0.0 has been published as official latest version in main thinBasic web site in order to reduce confusion.

I'm working at the next version that will bring few fixes, few new features and possibly a great improve for those developing thinBasic modules ;)




Thanks for the update Eros!

[Gregory]

Welcome Gregory!,

I think there are just 2 (from the total of ~40) modules with "specific" license:

TBASS
iComplex


The first one, used for advanced sound management, can be used for free in non-commercial applications.
The second one can be used in public scripts only if you distribute them under GPL.

When you create EXE from your script, only the modules it uses are bundled with it. That means, if you don't use the mentioned 2 modules, you can freely distribute the final EXE, even for commercial purposes, without any complication.

In case you use TBASS, you have to pay fee to the authors of the library the module is based on. For shareware it is about 100 EUR, for more info please look here: http://www.un4seen.com/


Petr


Thanks very much for the help!
At least now its much clearer of exactly how things work.

I think ill keep it open for now and see what the future brings... Thanks Again!

[zlatkoAB]

Hi....
I want build my own editor for thinBasic and i need list of commands
keywords.
I found in thinAir folder syntax which have keywords but im
amazed how many keywords are there , if im see correctly
somwhere about 4000 keywords,i also see that are
splited between normal and keyw with % - are constants.
So i need colorize in different color normal command and constants
in different, is there list only with normal commands i mean without
sign % ?
I also made program which sort commands to
10 commands in line inside string,becose list are huge.

[ErosOlmi]

zlatkoAB,

you can generate your keyword list by yourself the way you prefer.

Check inside \thinBasic\thinAir\Syntax\ directory and make a copy of "thinBasic.CreateSyntaxIni.tBasic" script.
That script is used to generate keywords list

In your copy of the script, change the line

sKeys = APP_ListKeywords & $TAB & APP_ListFunctions & $TAB & APP_ListEquates
to something like

sKeys = APP_ListKeywords
This will list just keywords

Than change the output file name in order to create your own.
That's all.

Ciao
Eros

[zlatkoAB]

Thanks Eros ... :)
I will do like you say...

PS.I do it..
Cool works perfect :D