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Gambas 1.0 Release Candidate Available

Posted by Hemos on from the getting-ready-for-the-big-time dept.

raindog2 writes "After two and a half years of development, Gambas has become the first Visual Basic-style environment for Linux to enter release candidate status. Anyone who has been frustrated by a lack of production-quality free RAD environments should give it a try."

30 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. I sense... by palad1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    A great disturbance in the Force.
    It was like a million voices crying out in unison, then suddenly silenced.

    Thank god the project page is already slashdotted.

  2. Hmmmm by black6host · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Kylix doesn't count? Although the *free* version did have some limitations it was quite possible to develop software in a RAD based environment using Kylix.

    Granted, neither version (free or pay) took off quite the way some would have liked but all the same, let's give credit where credit is due.

    1. Re:Hmmmm by raindog2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There will obviously be custom proprietary components used in VB projects that are difficult to duplicate in Gambas and under Linux, but I'm on my third major VB application port right now and it's really been a piece of cake so far, knock on wood. Being able to run any Linux program on a pipe makes it easier than you'd imagine to duplicate some pretty esoteric functionality provided by random third-party VB controls.

      Those who don't think they're up to the porting can always wait for KBasic, which will not be free software but it'll still be pretty cheap (and, it claims, 100% VB compatible.)

  3. Re:No mono or dotgnu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Probably because it's been in development for two and a half years, and mono and/or dotgnu didn't exist then.

    Seems quite self evident to me.

  4. Wow by linux_warp · · Score: 4, Informative

    This actually looks like a very impressive and well put together program. The screenshot looks great (http://gambas.sourceforge.net/2004-09-06.png).

    And according to their website "As the graphical user interface is implemented as a component, Gambas will be able to be independent of any toolkit ! You will be able to write a program, and choose the toolkit later : GTK+, Qt, etc." - so there is no toolkit bias either which is a big bonus.

    1. Re:Wow by raindog2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      In fact, someone is working on it already:

      http://wiki.gnulinex.org/gambas/6

      Scroll to the bottom (and use Babelfish or Google if you don't know enough Spanish.)

      Daniel has already written three Gambas components (sockets, compression, and most recently XML) so I have every reason to believe he's serious about the Gtk one. I have seen posts by him on mail.gnome.org asking for help on this issue or that, so he is apparently well into coding it.

      Also, you certainly can compile, install and run Gambas without Qt... you just can't write graphical programs or use the IDE without it (yet!) For example, while I wouldn't really recommend it given the existence of php, modperl, j2ee et al., you can write CGI programs using Gambas.

  5. Fast by Daengbo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow this project has matured fast. I stumbled on it ??a year and a half ago?? when it was still in its infancy. Every once in a while I visit it, expecting it to be dead like so many other projects that I try to follow, but I am always suprised by new material on the front pages.

    Congrats to the Gambas developers for being such work horses! I am impressed.

    --
    Put identity in the browser.
  6. Kylix by tverbeek · · Score: 3, Informative
    Gambas has become the first Visual Basic-style environment for Linux to enter release candidate status.

    Unless you count Kylix. It uses Pascal or C++ instead of Basic, but it's definitely a VB-style environment.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  7. My wish... by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...is that someone experienced now does the right thing; that is: Slap a database engine onto Gambas, put everything including documentation, examples of sample code for particular problems, PDF creation on the fly using available tools and all dependencies required into ONE application or file. Various components to be installed can be selected at installation time. Then announce that they have M$ Access killer called GambasDB. I will then immediately jump onto the band wagon. I wonder why it has not happened before.

    1. Re:My wish... by raindog2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There's no reporting engine yet, though people are working on one, but one of its database drivers is for an embedded, serverless database (SQLite), and I think it's only a matter of time before someone does what you describe.

      I am pretty sure only a couple hundred people had ever heard of Gambas before today, but that has changed. Of course the site is toast but maybe some of them will remember and look again tomorrow...

  8. Re:I don't like it by Daengbo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, the ability to script KDE from bash was a bad idea, too?

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    Put identity in the browser.
  9. Glade? by rwebb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What about the Glade toolkit? Granted, it's not "Visual Basic" but it does help take care of the donkey work in getting the user interface setup.

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  10. What about the Visual Editor project on Eclipse? by Ikeya · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe the Visual Editor isn't in release status? (I think it is, but I'm not sure.) But this definately isn't the only nor the first visual editor project. Check it out if you're interested in a RAD platform with graphical elements very similar to Visual Basic, etc. It uses Java and not BASIC, but I don't see that as a bad thing.
    Oh yeah... it's also open source.

    The Eclipse Visual Editor Project

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    ---- Move SIG...For great justice!
  11. Page won't load by stratjakt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anyone have some details on this? How visual basic-like is it? Any .NET/mono integration? Cross-compilation features?

    Something for linux that's close enough to VB to make porting effortless would be a dream come true, and our company could move away from MSFT. Of course, some customers will always wan't VB clients and SQL Server backends, because they're asshats.

    The free edition of Sybase for linux perked eyebrows among the PHB's around here, and I was actually give time to set a box up to prove that it could, indeed be a drop in replacement for a SQL Server backend, and I impressed them somewhat showing how much easier it would be to maintain over a crappy dial-up connection..

    Now it's all these bazillion client apps I want rid of. We're looking hard at mono and C# for new development, but we have oodles of legacy VB6 code to maintain, and nowhere near the manpower to port all of it. Hell, we don't even have time to port it to .NET yet. By we I mean me since I have no real help here. Fuck it, I haven't even had time to replace all the old RDO code in a lot of the crap.

    Someone post some details. Could Sybase+gambas be a drop-in replacement for VB6+SQL Server?

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:Page won't load by raindog2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm surprised it got slashdotted so fast. Anyway, it compiles to its own pseudo-code not unlike the first 3 or 4 revisions of VB.... nothing saying someone couldn't write a compiler from that pseudo-code to CLR/Mono or Parrot or the JVM, but no one's really started talking about that seriously yet.

      The language is about as strict as VB is when you use Option Explicit, and wasn't built as a clone of VB, so while we have a Perl script to convert form layouts over (which I wrote, and which I will integrate with the IDE when I finish my PCRE component for Gambas soon) converting code is still a manual process, and there are a lot of differences though it's still BASIC. I will continue to work on conversion tools, though.

      Finally, there is no FreeTDS (Sybase/MSSQL) database driver yet, but I expect that to follow eventually.... I would be writing one myself except I keep moving people off of MSSQL and Sybase and onto MySQL.

      I've only contributed a little code to Gambas, I just maintain Mandrake packages and the wiki from which the documentation is generated.

  12. VB-style GUI design by PiGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Unfortunately, this IDE seems to suffer from the same horrible method of GUI design as VB (judging from the screenshot), whereby one draws components on a form, thus specifying the widgets' absolute coordinates. This is all good and well until you decide to make the form resizable. Then all hell breaks loose: none of the widgets move unless you explicitly change their coordinates. I was forced to write my own geometry manager, in VB, to overcome this problem in a clean way.

    Otherwise, this looks like a very good product for a company looking to switch to Unix, but wanting to retain compatibility with all their VB scripts (like the one I work at). Of course, porting the scripts to a better language (*cough*Python*cough*) would be the best solution, but management just won't hear of it :/.

    1. Re:VB-style GUI design by sapped · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is all good and well until you decide to make the form resizable. Then all hell breaks loose: none of the widgets move unless you explicitly change their coordinates.

      It has been some time since I last used VB, but I seem to recall (Delphi definately has this) that you could "tie" components to the form so that they would grow and shrink as the form resizes. You could also specify upper and lower limits for the width and height of each component you placed on the form. I found the Delphi IDE to be far superior to anything found on the Linux front. Now, if only we could convince the Borland idiots not to annoy the developers with their mindless management style then we might have something going again.

    2. Re:VB-style GUI design by kraut · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://vb2py.sourceforge.net/index.htm - automagically convert VB to Python. Haven't tried it, since I haven't touched VB for years, but it could be a dream come true ;)

      --
      no taxation without representation!
  13. Interesting by gustgr · · Score: 5, Funny

    In portuguese the word gambá means skunk :-) Well, it is VB-like after all.

  14. Totally misread that summary.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anyone who has been frustrated by a lack of production-quality free RAD environments...

    Production-quality free?

    No, production quality is good.... Must be something else. Maybe they mis-hyphenated?

    Production quality-free?

    Argh....

  15. VB by icebattle · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The thing I always liked about VB was that it enabled my boss to get his 12-year-old to write an app that almost did something useful. Then he installed it and required everyone to use it. When it failed because of poor file locking, arbitrary array limit choices (try 53) and other CS101 gambits, it became my problem (with no windows background) to fix.

    Do we really need a VB clone in linuxland?

    1. Re:VB by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes.

      You can write good code in VB, only elitist morons hear the word "BASIC" and think it's beneath them.

      We have tons and tons of VB code that we have no time, or really need, to port.

      High level languages are the future. People who think if it isn't written in C or ASM will be left in the past.

      The easier it is to write, the easier it is to maintain, and the easier it is to use good code form and techniques. It doesn't mean any idiot can fire it up and write good code, writing good code is a skill. Just like anyone can learn to speak english, but it doesn't make them a good poet or author.

      The problem is your boss's 12 year old kid, not the language. Be thankful he didn't write his dogshit code in FORTRAN, COBOL or C, using the most obscure syntax he could because it made him feel smarter. I've had to maintain/port plenty of that crap and it's no fun at all.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:VB by the_weasel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, I would even go further and say the problem was his boss. I have pretty clear memories of being that 12 year old kid (18 years ago!), and writing my first software applications.

      They were as good as could be expected, but no one in their right mind would have employed them in a real environment.

      Congratulations to the 12 year old for doing something other than wtching tv and playing games.....

      --
      - sarcasm is just one more service we offer -
  16. Windows support? by voice+of+unreason · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I can't read the articles due to slashdotting, but I was wondering, does anyone know if there are plans for a Windows version? I know this is intended to bring RAD design to Linux, but I think a lot of Windows users would be attracted to a free, open source alternative to Visual Basic, particularly considering how expensive .Net tools can be.

  17. Re:No mono or dotgnu? by Pxtl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Either way, they've done the typical OSS thing: copied MS, circa 1997. Wow, we've managed to replicate Visual Basic 4. Meanwhile, .NET Architect is out there, using a powerful multi-language VM instead of a BASIC interpreter.

    Well, who knows. Maybe when Parrot takes off they'll move over to that, so they can have a real OSS theme to it.

  18. Re:What about the Visual Editor project on Eclipse by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not sure if that warning is quite appropriate in this context. The main reason being that eclipse/swt are able to be used with gcj. If one were to follow the authors advice at the end of your article, and only have a free implementation of java on his system, the 'Java trap' should be impossible to fall into.

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  19. Re:No mono or dotgnu? by civilizedINTENSITY · · Score: 4, Funny

    1997? Oh come now. Its all about dynamic typing. In the next ten(?) years OSS and MS will both finally arrive at the peak of programming languages: VisualLisp.

  20. Re:No mono or dotgnu? by tntguy · · Score: 3, Funny

    .net is the answer to: ?xis sulp ruof si tahW

  21. Re:Basic on Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    While you're at it, what about wxBasic? It's free, open source, uses the excellent wxWidgets library.

  22. Two words: Killer Application by Qbertino · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Rant and hiss all you want. This application has the potential to move an entire generation of mid-40ish "Windows and VB4 still works for me" people - who are basically stating the truth - to Linux / OSS enviroments.
    And no Blahblah about Eclipse Basic being somewhere close to RAD or QTDevelop being a sort-of half way kinda RAD tool and "whats all the excitement about, I only need Perl and a few bazillion extra libs and dependency resoltions to write nice TK-Apps that are ugly as hell" will change that.

    As for me, I'm sold. Congratulations to the Gambas team.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca