FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

User projects written in or related to FreeBASIC.
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

As requested i put the download link at the top of the first post:

You may downlod JK-IDE for free ->> here <<-



JK-IDE is a 32 bit Windows application initially written as an IDE for PowerBASIC, now i want to extend it´s capabilties to FreeBASIC. It isn´t a pure code editor, because it offers some advanced and unique editing and debugging features for application development including support for projects.

FreeBASIC is multiplatform, so maybe even Linux (or other) users might find it useful, even if it cannot be natively run there. You must use Wine or a virtual machine. Currently i have no opportunity to test my IDE on Wine or a virtual machine, so i cannot guarantee for anything. It would help to get feedback, if there are problems in such an environment.

The current version is a very first beta release, so it may still be buggy. Please report issues and bugs here in this thread or drop me a mail at <jk-ide at t minus online dot de>, i will answer asap.

Be sure to read the (rather comprehensive) documentation in order to understand how things work. There definitely is a learning curve for this IDE. If you still don´t understand how to do things, or if you encounter problems doing what you want to do in this IDE, feel free to ask! In general most things explained for PowerBASIC apply to FreeBASIC as well, if not otherwise stated in the "FreeBASIC section. This section will be updated, just like the IDE as work makes progress.

The IDE offeres an automatic update feature (Options menu\Editor Options\Look for Online Updates), this checks once per day, if there is a new version available. If so the new version gets downloaded and afterwards you will be asked, if you want to install this update. If you confirm, the update is installed, JK-IDE closes and restarts again. You get a message box telling you the update was successful. If you decline, nothing else happens. If you don´t like this you may leave "Look for online updates" unchecked. It is possible to check for an update any time by Help menu - Online update. In this case you always get an animation for the checking and downloading process and a message box telling you about the results. If you opted for automatic checking, you get notified only, if there actually is an update available. Afterwards you will be asked, if you want to install this update, just as with automatic updates.

You may downlod JK-IDE for free here. If you like what you get, you can support my efforts by a donation. Please read more about donations in the help file.

Currently not all features are supported for FreeBASIC, that is there is no debugger and the visual designer doesn´t create FreeBASIC compatible code - i plan to fix that in the next months.



JK
Last edited by Juergen Kuehlwein on Jun 18, 2018 18:55, edited 1 time in total.
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Hi all,


V 2.2.0.1 is online, circular or recursive use of "#include ..." could freeze the IDE under certain circumstances - thanks Jerry Wilson


JK
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Hi all,

V 2.2.0.2 - investigating further what Jerry reported, i found yet another method to freeze the IDE, i hope it is foolproof in this regard now. Made some substantial progress with the Visual Designer, but there is still a lot of work to do until it works just like it already does in PowerBASIC

JK
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Hi all,


V 2.2.0.3 is online - fixed a rare focus (timing) issue when switching from PowerBASIC to FreeBASIC and vice versa


JK
srvaldez
Posts: 3373
Joined: Sep 25, 2005 21:54

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by srvaldez »

hello Juergen Kuehlwein :-)
I am looking forward to the release of the visual designer.
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

The Visual Designer will need a lot of work still. I managed to get some very basic examples running, but i want to have the same code for 32 and 64 as well as for ANSI and Unicode . Currently i´m struggling a bit with Unicode. There is no native support for dynamic wide strings in FreeBASIC, therefore i try to get it working with José Roca´s WinFBX (CWstr), which in general i can recommend using. CWstr works like a charm, but there are minor syntax differences between STRING and CWstr. Maybe it is impossible to get the same syntax for both, maybe it is possible. This is what i´m working on at the moment...


JK
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Hi all,


V 2.3.0.0 is online - this a major update! i added Unicode support for the editor, that is you may enter literal Unicode strings now, the corresponding file must be in Unicode mode, please read more in the help Editor\Unicode. As a consequence an existing ToDo list and text in the macro definition window may appear strange and must be re-written, this applies to characters above ASCII 127. Intellisense is faster now, no auto intellisense for small language keywords (<6 characters), but you can still force it (Ctrl + Space). You may select multiple files now in the recent files listbox for re-opening now.

This release is still in beta stage for FreeBASIC and some FreeBASIC specific things are still subject to change with future releases, especially the VD doesn´t work yet for FreeBASIC. This will be my next step.

As always i did my best trying to avoid new bugs with new features. This update required many additions and changes in many different locations. Some more changes will be necessary to make literal Unicode strings possible in the VD, which doesn´t support literal Unicode string currently. This is a feature yet to come. Please report problems and bugs as you find them



JK
kcvinu
Posts: 232
Joined: Oct 07, 2015 16:44
Location: Keralam, India

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by kcvinu »

Hi JK,
Thanks for this wonderful IDE. Its very nice to work with this IDE. Cool features. I love the case statements in Code tree. Its very apt for FreeBasic since we in fb, depends switch or select case for every gui actions.
Can i change the compiling methed with a menu option ?
I mean if i am coding a gui application but i want to compile it as a console app so that i can see the console window in runtime. But after finish coding i can change the compiling method back to GUI. is there any menu option or tool bar icon for that ?
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Well, you can specify the compilation target (GUI or CONSOLE and many other things) by the "#compile" statement. Please read more about it in the help file in the "FreeBASIC" node. You may make use of the "ODS/ODX" feature for debug output instead of the console.

I wanted to keep all compiler settings with the corresponding code, so i decided to implement a new code statement ("#compile ...") holding all necessary information as a special feature of this IDE. FreeBASIC support is still work in progress and the documentation available for it may be a bit short, but it will get better as things evolve.

Please don´t hesitate to ask questions, report problems, present ideas for improvements, or point out things i missed. Post in this thread or drop me a mail at <jk-ide at t minus online dot de>


JK
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Hi all,


V 2.3.0.2 is online, a major update for the the Visual Designer (V 1.5.0.0) it now supports literal Unicode strings as well. That is you now may directly create controls with Russian, Greek or Chinese text and tooltips. Please read about FreeBASIC support in the corresponding topic of the help file.

The Visual Designer basically works for FreeBASIC as well now, but currently only in a very limited way. You can design a window and buttons, labels and textboxes as child controls. Most other controls and features don´t work, because the code base i use for generating code must still be adapted from PowerBASIC syntax to FreeBASIC syntax. This is tedious and time consuming but the basic problems integrating FreeBASIC into my IDE and it´s VD seem to be solved.

Credits go to José Roca for his WINFBX framework (which i highly recommend using whit this IDE) and his extraordinary personal support helping to integrate it into my IDE.

As always i did my best trying to avoid new bugs with new features. This update required many additions and changes in many different locations. Please report problems and bugs as you find them


JK
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Hi all,


V 2.3.0.3 is online, the Visual Designer (V 1.5.0.1) basically works with FreeBASIC now (apart from some small restrictions). You may download the necessary FreeBASIC tool chain from inside the IDE and install it for use with the IDE as an automated process. A few minor changes and fixes.

This is the last beta release (at least i hope so) . The next release will be the first official version for FreeBASIC. Please read the help file before using it, there is an updated "FreeBASIC" section for FreeBASIC specific topics.


Feel free to ask questions (not already answered by the help file) or post bug reports here.


JK
coderJeff
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Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by coderJeff »

Your download link is really hard to see in your opening post. I think you should make it more noticeable, like edit your post and show in first two lines. I tried running jk-ide.exe and AVAST has sent it to the lab... a rare file. I don't know what that means, first time I ever saw it.
Imortis
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Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Imortis »

coderJeff wrote:... I tried running jk-ide.exe and AVAST has sent it to the lab... a rare file. I don't know what that means, first time I ever saw it.
It means that AVAST has not seen the file before or has seen it rarely. This just means they have no reputation on the file. It is probably safe.
coderJeff
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Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by coderJeff »

Yup, I got a notification back today that it was analyzed as safe. That's good news.
Juergen Kuehlwein
Posts: 284
Joined: Mar 07, 2018 13:59
Location: Germany

Re: FreeBASIC IDE with enhanced debugging and project features

Post by Juergen Kuehlwein »

Hi all,


unfortunately there are problems with recent updates! The IDE works, but under some circumstances (e.g. if "WinFBX Path (FreeBASIC)" in Paths Options Dialog is empty) it shows unnecessary error boxes, this is not really a problem - but annoying. The latest version 2.3.0.4 seems to solve this only partially.

I didn´t and don´t experience these problems in my test environments and i still cannot reproduce them, but i got reports from other users.


The file (jk-ide.zip) is safe - i don´t code viruses or other malicious things! Due to the nature of this IDE and the fact that is written in PowerBASIC (which is known to produces very small executables) some virus scanners report false positives. Their heuristic sees small executables without manifest as a potential threat, which is a well known problem at PowerBASIC. The package contains such dll files. The IDE contains debugging features, which are written in Assembler. Therefore (for debugging purposes) it does things a regular application wouldn´t do - another point of suspect for virus scanners. Right now i did a check at virustotal with "jk-ide.zip" and got this result:


Ihre Datei wird gerade analysiert.
SHA256: b140bcd1ca81a5b3b17785b54b8c2d1ab2f550a6fc1e61e49d455ca168784b56
Dateiname: jk-ide.zip
Erkennungsrate: 3 / 60 (=detection rate)


Antivirus Ergebnis Aktualisierung

These return false positves
-> Baidu Win32.Trojan.WisdomEyes.16070401.9500.9992 20180615
-> Comodo Heur.Packed.Unknown 20180618
-> DrWeb Trojan.Winlock.12708 20180618

All others report - safe
Ad-Aware 20180618
AegisLab 20180618
AhnLab-V3 20180618
Alibaba 20180615
ALYac 20180618
Antiy-AVL 20180618
Arcabit 20180618
Avast 20180618
Avast-Mobile 20180618
AVG 20180618
Avira (no cloud) 20180618
AVware 20180618
Babable 20180406
BitDefender 20180618
Bkav 20180618
CAT-QuickHeal 20180618
ClamAV 20180618
CMC 20180618
Cyren 20180618
Emsisoft 20180618
ESET-NOD32 20180618
F-Prot 20180618
F-Secure 20180618
Fortinet 20180618
GData 20180618
Ikarus 20180618
Jiangmin 20180618
K7AntiVirus 20180618
K7GW 20180618
Kaspersky 20180618
Kingsoft 20180618
Malwarebytes 20180618
MAX 20180618
McAfee 20180618
McAfee-GW-Edition 20180618
Microsoft 20180618
eScan 20180618
NANO-Antivirus 20180618
Panda 20180618
Qihoo-360 20180618
Rising 20180618
Sophos AV 20180618
SUPERAntiSpyware 20180618
Symantec 20180618
TACHYON 20180618
Tencent 20180618
TheHacker 20180613
TrendMicro 20180618
TrendMicro-HouseCall 20180618
VBA32 20180618
VIPRE 20180618
ViRobot 20180618
Webroot 20180618
Yandex 20180618
Zillya 20180618
ZoneAlarm by Check Point 20180618
Zoner 20180618


JK
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