Best of FreeBASIC IDE’s, Tools, Libraries, Resources, and More

FreeBasic?

FreeBasic is a free and open source compiler that works with Windows, DOS, and Linux. It includes a QuickBasic emulation mode but also has many features of contemporary languages. The most recent version is 1.06 from Feb. 18, 2019. Development appears to have slowed to a crawl.

Integrated Development Environments

winFBE

• Last Release: 2019
• Version Control Repository: GitHub
• Notes:
  • Written by Paul Squires who is also the author of (the now deprecated) JellyFB and Firefly Visual Designer.
  • Written by Paul Squires who has written several other IDE’s for FreeBASIC.
• UI feels more modern.

FBedit (Author: Ketil Olsen, KetilO)

An IDE for FreeBasic built on RadASM, an IDE that was originally written for Assembly, also by Ketil.

• Last Release: 2009
• Version Control Repository: SourceForge
• Notes:
  • The repository has seen some activity over the years, but the only “release” appears to be from 2010 – 1.0.7.6c.
  • I’m particularly fond of:
    • simplicity of the user interface
    • window showing all functions within app.
    • ease with which one can compile/run apps from the IDE.
  • Unfortunately, while there have been a number of websites, including fbedit.freebasic.net, none of them are functional. You can view an old copy of one site at The Wayback Machine.
  • There are several forks of FBEdit, none of which I have had opportunity to try including FBEdit Mod (SVN) and a fork of this fork, FBEdit Mod (Cherry Version) (GitHub)

FBide

• Last Release: 2013
• Version Control Repository: SourceForge
• Notes:
  • There is a functioning website hosted by freebasic.net unlike FBedit.
  • Features include autoformatting, auto code indenting, configurable syntax highlighting, compile error reporting, code browser, etc.

Discontinued

• Firefly Visual Designer (by Paul Squires)- No updates since 2016, appears that WinFBE is its planned replacement.
  • Similar to Microsoft’s Visual Basic IDE.
• JellyFB (by Paul Squires)- No updates since 2010, appears to be deprecated in favor of WinFBE.

Other IDEs

• PosideonFB – Last Updated: 2019.
• wxFBE – Last Updated: 2013.
• FbEditMOD – Last Updated: 2016.
  • Fork of KetilO’s FbEdit.

Libraries

• Mysoft’s Assembler OR FMOD Play Library (2008) – One of the options recommended to me. Assembler version doesn’t require FMOD. Believe it is QB compatible (aka, no need to compile as FB).
• D.J. Peter’s FBSound (2014) – Written by one of the more prolific FB programmers, works with Windows and Linux, uses several drivers.
• D.J. Peter’s Audio Lib Bass (2015) – Provides integration of Bass library for sound with FreeBasic. Bass is free for non-commercial use.
• FreeBasic Extended Library
• FBMath
• External Libraries Index – A list of external libraries that have bindings currently included in FreeBasic.

Debuggers

• FB Debugger – Last Updated: 2019.

Testing

• fbcunit – Last updated was 10/2018.

Resources

• FreeBasic Portal. An excellent and fairly comprehensive site dealing with FB and offering numerous downloads.
  • Written in German, but Google Translate makes more than readable English.
• D.J. Peter’s libraries, code, and tutorials. D.J. is one of the more prolific programmers using FreeBasic. Has written a sound library among numerous others.
• FreeBasic running in the browser using Emscripten. Actual implementation is on GitHub.
• FreeBasic CodeLibrary – Includes a number of source code examples, IDEs, etc.
• FreeBasic Community Tutorials.
• A Beginner’s Guide to FreeBasic – A 255 page (old) ebook on FreeBasic.

You Should Know This…

• TJF on how FreeBasic library .bi files come to be, tools to convert from C.
• FreeBasic Thread on what is wrong (or right) with BASIC generally and FreeBASIC specifically.