Free Pascal - Lazarus?

[parttimecoder]

Have you ever given purebasic a go.

It has a form builder simple basic like language and is cross platform. There is a trial and the full version is only a little over $100.00.

http://www.purebasic.com/ 

[MilesAhead]

AutoIt3 just released 3.3.6.0

Just thought I'd toss that in since I mentioned AutoIt3 earlier.
AutoIt3 has some good features for creating reusable user defned
functions(better variable scoping than ahk for instance.)

However one thing I really noticed since the recent releases
with code breaking changes, is it doesn't have the equivalent of a
#define or conditional includes.  Makes it just about impossible to
have one source file that spans versions as there's no practical
way to screen out functions not yet in a release from the parser.

You can't do
#if defined AutoIt3660
#include <newstuff.au3>
#else
#include <oldstuff.au3>
#endif

or the equivalent.

But the thing is small enough you copy your entire script folder over
to the new install and just fix what's broken by the new release apparently.

[kartal]

After looking into various languages like FreePascal, FreeBasic, PureBasic,C++ I cannot seem to make up my mind I need to learn C++ at some point but along the way I want to work on fun Gui and visual stuff.

Python offers nice solutions but non are integrated as in Pascal or Basic I guess. I have used Glade+Pygtk other day for a small project of mine, it was not bad actually. The main problem with Python and Gui stuff is the compiling. I ended up compiling my program into an exe file+folders but took alot of time to figure out right things, I assume compiling with Basic or Pascal should be relatively simple.

[MilesAhead]

I played around a bit with Python. Mostly the ActivePython distro with the Windows COM support.  There are things I like about it, but as you say, doing a freeze to pack stuff up in a self-contained thingy can be weird.

If you really feel the need to learn C++ then I'd suggest going with the C++ Express Visual Studio 2008.  Somewhere months back I found an .iso image with SP1 integrated and the install on my Vista64 went smoothly. If I'm not mistaken, some of the Borland guys who did the delphi form designer stuff went over to MS a few years back.  The form design in VS has pretty much the same feel to it.

Unless you are using the newer features you can target .NET 2.0 and it will run on just about any windows XP and later. One thing I did like about C# stuff that I did with it, is you can persist settings in the application using properties.  The C# forms support alpha transparency just using an opacity value.  So for example if the user moved a slider to set the opacity of the form, then closed the app, you could have it set up to automatically persist the value in the user's settings.

Some things it makes easy.
Cool looking stuff with glass and non-rectangular forms or skins, that kind of stuff takes a bit more work.

[kartal]

MilesAhead

Thanks for the suggestions. I know Visual Express Studio is very attractive alternative but my problem is that I spend quite a bit of time on Linux and Windows so I want my stuff to be cross platform. That is why anything .net would not slice it for me really, which is why I am not investing a lot o f time in either in Ahk or Autoit. They sure are very very nice alternatives if you are sticking to Windows.

[Carol Haynes]

I have been playing with RealBasic and like the fact that IDE and language development is ongoing regularly (and rapidly). OK it isn't free but with the pro version you can cross compile for Windows, Mac and Linux.

[MilesAhead]

MilesAhead

Thanks for the suggestions. I know Visual Express Studio is very attractive alternative but my problem is that I spend quite a bit of time on Linux and Windows so I want my stuff to be cross platform. That is why anything .net would not slice it for me really, which is why I am not investing a lot o f time in either in Ahk or Autoit. They sure are very very nice alternatives if you are sticking to Windows.

-kartal (March 15, 2010, 03:18 PM)

I played around a bit with Mono when it first came out.  But I haven't kept up with it to see if it really gelled as a .NET platform on Linux. It may be worth a look to see if it's dead or thriving.

edit: just took a look.  Seems C# is supported across platforms but C++ is Linux only.  Perhaps not the way to go.