Hi luke,
What you're really asking for is Unicode support in the language.
This is a Hard thing to add to the language. Change proposals welcome.
Not exactly or only.
What I think is to separate the code of the current pseudo IDE into two distinct parts:
- one is the compiler itself (qb64 itself should be a simple tool like gcc or g++ or any other compiler with no other interface but the flags of a command line),
- and the second one is the editor itself which would call the compiler part like any other external editor does and of course able to use unicode characters (for example CodeBlocks under Windows).
This would have several advantages:
This would allow the QB64 developers to focus on one part or another, and then more easily extend the capabilities of the language itself.
It would also allow to choose easily any other more modern editor,
And it would make the compiler part much smaller and therefore more efficient while being much easier to evolve and enhance.
Now, another brand new project would be to propose a total integration of a modern editor, a compiler, a debugger, a dynamic help system with code generation examples and a graphical form generator, all "à la" VB. But this is anothere story.
To be honest, I gave up collaborating on the QB64 project itself after looking at its undocumented spaguetti code several times.
I really admire you and the other QB64 developers for your dedication to evolve the current QB64 which for me does not meet the standards of a modern tool.
And that's a shame because it doesn't allow this excellent language to reach a much wider audience (not to mention that it is only available in English, this last point being very easy to modify with all the message strings located in separate source files).
As a proof of concept, I will later make a short video of a product my team made almost 30 years ago where the language of the user interface is changed in real time by a simple click on a menu option.
Kind regards.
