purebasic vs. freebasic

[thefool]

What seperates PureBasic from FreeBasic is IMHO the feature rich standard library.
That's what keeps me from using C, FreeBasic and C++ more often, because it
makes (effectiv) programming so much easier...

yeah i'm becoming pretty satisfied with purebasic in that areas. Especially with 4.2, i already wrote two programs at work which use the new mail library for sending reports to clients..

[Seldon]

I don't know much about FreeBasic, but I don't like any Basic dialect that comes with a M$ syntax. I do prefer the PB dialect, because I'm used to it... from old BlitzBasic Amiga days. Besides from a technical point of view, the progress of PB is simply gorgeous.

[Mistrel]

I agree. The PureBasic syntax is excellent.

[Heathen]

The only thing I don't like is the syntax of freebasic, other than that, it seems to be a great language, probably better than PB in terms of features and functionality.

Traitor.

Seriously though, it doesn't look that bad features wise, there are a few things that PB could do with that are already implemented in FB.

But I think I'll stick with PB.

I still prefer PB because of the syntax and 'pureness'.. Just based on the feature list and what's included in the base package, freebasic seems to have a little more to offer, thats all.

[Dare]

FreeBasic is akin to PowerBasic et al in its syntax, etc.

Whereas PureBasic marches to the beat of it's very own drum - and the beat rocks!


Long long time since I used FreeBasic so this is probably obsolete but back then I found it was cumbersome. Like QBasic and Powerbasic.

Not knocking it (it worked okay) but you couldn't throw together an app quicksmart like you can with Pure; You had to write your own "gadgets" and etc or hope there was a thirdparty lib available; The install, IDE and syntax were all a bit clunky (or required many more actions like keystrokes, etc) compared to Pure.

However, that was back then. Maybe things have changed.


Regardless, there are very smart people involved in the development of both.

[sampb]

Thanks a lot!!!
Now I have some points to answer my friend.

[blueznl]

I went for PureBasic as I came from GfaBasic, and PureBasic is more akin to GfaBasic then all the MSBasic descendants.

There's simply too much typing in other dialects

[utopiomania]

Fred wrote:

Both languages are now very complex, you can't just compare them based on one or another small feature

But freebasic is version 0.18.4 Beta, and PureBasic is 4.10?

I REFUSE to accept that freebasic can compare at all, or am I looking at the wrong freebasic or what

[littlebigman]

Since this thread dates back to 2008, I think it'd be useful to update the FAQ to provide a fair comparison between PureBasic and FreeBasic so that users can make an educated decision.

[xorc1zt]

today, the main differences between PB and FB :

purebasic :
- non free
- closed source
- x64
- mac os

freebasic :
- free
- open source
- OOP
- x86 only (but x64 and ARM planned)

free basic has a more libs but less documentations.

[ts-soft]

free basic has a more libs but less documentations.

no, freebasic has wrappers for many free dlls and libs!

[Kiffi]

my personally main difference between PB and FB :

purebasic :
- easy-peasy window programming

freebasic :
- beastly hard window programming



Greetings ... Kiffi

[xorc1zt]

when you say "window" do you mean a GUI or microsoft windows the os ? because free basic has now good visual designers like firefly or FBEdit

http://sourceforge.net/projects/fbedit/
http://www.planetsquires.com/firefly_freebasic.html

[Kiffi]

when you say "window" do you mean a GUI or microsoft windows the os ?

i mean GUI programming. Sorry for the missunderstanding (see my signature ).

Code: Select all

#myWindow=0
#myButton=0

If OpenWindow(#myWindow, #PB_Ignore, #PB_Ignore, 200, 200, "myWindow")
  ButtonGadget(#myButton, 10, 10, 100, 20, "Please press!")
  Repeat
    Select WaitWindowEvent()
      Case #PB_Event_Gadget
        Select EventGadget()
          Case #myButton
            MessageRequester("", "Thanks!")
        EndSelect
      Case #PB_Event_CloseWindow
        Break 
    EndSelect
  ForEver
EndIf

Can you provide some FB-Code similar to the PB-Code above?

Greetings ... Kiffi

[bembulak]

i mean GUI programming. Sorry for the missunderstanding (see my signature ).

Code: Select all

#myWindow=0
#myButton=0

If OpenWindow(#myWindow, #PB_Ignore, #PB_Ignore, 200, 200, "myWindow")
  ButtonGadget(#myButton, 10, 10, 100, 20, "Please press!")
  Repeat
    Select WaitWindowEvent()
      Case #PB_Event_Gadget
        Select EventGadget()
          Case #myButton
            MessageRequester("", "Thanks!")
        EndSelect
      Case #PB_Event_CloseWindow
        Break
    EndSelect
  ForEver
EndIf

Can you provide some FB-Code similar to the PB-Code above?

Agreed!
The missing crossplattform GUI-lib is one of the reasons, why FB unusable for me. Yes, I know, there's a wxWidgets-wrapper (that does NOT support sizers!) and a GTK wrapper, but I don't want my users to "must install" GTK on Windows.
Furthermore: FB does not support Mac OSX!