FutureBasic 5

FB is primarily composed of two pieces of software and is supported by thousands of files. The two pieces that do most of the work are the Editor and the Compiler.

Editor: The editor is where code is typed. It's like a word processor built specifically for programmers. Only this word processor is so cool that one reviewer called it the "model of the genre." It automatically indents, bold-faces, changes the color, and otherwise enhances your text according to parameters that you establish. The Editor is easy to navigate. If you want to find a function that you have used, command-double-click the reference to it and you will instantly be transported to its definition. That is also true of toolbox and constant definitions, record declarations, subroutines... Heck, if the remote control was this easy to find, you wouldn't have to move your couch cushions all of the time. Compiler: The Compiler is a less visible, but no less important part of the package. It takes the code typed into the Editor and converts it into machine language. And it does an excellent job. FB has a one-pass compiler; meaning that it handles the entire process without having to go over and over your code. It's fast. Way fast. On my Dual 1 gig G4, it will zip through 850,000 characters (850 pages) of source code per second. But the thing that will really paint racing stripes on the side of your CPU is the tight, fast code that the compiler generates. Your programs will run with amazing speed and they will take up just a squenchy little bit of disk space.