Graphical IDE. Should we all pitch in and make one?

[PMACKAY]

My two cents: I really love the IDE in its current form. My own preference is to see the code and not be distracted by anything else, something that the QB45 editor offered and the QB64 IDE mimics perfectly. The color coding of the source code in QB64 is a huge plus too. I really like that.

If there were one major wish I had with the current IDE it would be separating the subs/functions from the main code like the QB45 editor did. My current project is hitting the 2000 line mark and while I can hop from sub to sub easily (F2) I still like the clean look of having the subs/functions hidden until I want to edit them.

If we must go to a more modern IDE format, for things such as event processing, then I would suggest looking at the VBDOS editor as inspiration.

I completely agree... I love the IDE just how it is also. And it is nice to program in its current command level.. The only thing I would love changed is for qb64 to support programmable characters (ASCII) direct without having to load the character.h   also maybe some easy commands to support smooth scrolling on graphics, maybe some simple sprites like the chip 8 language had on the old computers.

[PMACKAY]

My honest question is:  What features does a new IDE need that isn't currently supported by the current one?  And, why can't the existing IDE simply be expanded to include those features?

What we have already is written in 100% QB64, so it helps highlight what we can do.  As I illustrate with the $AUTOSAVE and $REPLACE routines, it's not too difficult to add/alter usability/customizability. 

Why not simply keep improving what we have, instead of having to start over for something completely different?

Agree with steve..

[robpugh0829]

Just giving my 2 cents, one thing I was happy to see when I first found QB64 is that it looked like QB45 from back in the day. It kind of took me back a bit. The only thing is that at this point I've been using things like Notepad++, Sublime, Brackets, Visual Studio, etc... so having the feel of that would be nice as well.

I use Dav's IDE and I think it works well as a happy medium and I really like it. It could be an alternative some of you are looking for.

Although this does sound like a good project and I would be interested to see what could come out of it.

[Fifi]

Hi all,

Here is my 2 cents : https://www.qb64.org/forum/index.php?topic=655.msg5357#new

BTW, where can I find the Dav' IDE to test it and on what OS does it run?

Cheers.
Fifi

[Bert22306]

BTW, where can I find the Dav' IDE to test it and on what OS does it run?

Le voici:

http://www.qbasicnews.com/dav/projects.php#DAVSIDE

Windows.

[Fifi]

Thank you Bert22306.

BTW, are you French or Canadian?

Thanx again for the link.

Cheers.
Fifi

[Bert22306]

BTW, are you French or Canadian?

Ni l'un, ni l'autre. Je suis Italien, mais nous habitions Paris quand j'étais petit. Quatre ans. Et j'ai fais l'université aux Etats Unis.

The truth is, I find it very difficult to understand les Québécois. I find myself always like half a sentence behind what they are saying!

[davidshq]

Seems like there haven't been a lot of pro new IDE posts, so I'll lend my voice to that camp.

I understand that the QB64 IDE replicates the QuickBasic IDE and that it is powerful and can be enhanced. I also agree that the capabilities of the underlying compiler are fundamental to a successful language BUT I do think an IDE could take QB64 from a quite niche language to something more widely used...and I would like to see that occur.

I need to pull up Dave's IDE again, haven't tried it in a year or two. I remember it being quite decent. That said, I would suggest that rather than building a completely new IDE someone create an extension for Visual Studio Code. This cross-platform software has taken the development scene by storm and has been written with extensibility in mind.

Having an extension for VSC would instantly increase the visibility of QB64 significantly and would provide individuals who haven't used QuickBasic/DOS with a much more relatable interface than the current QuickBasic-esque IDE.

As some have pointed out, many languages don't have a pretty, main-stream GUI included with them (e.g. I wouldn't consider Python's IDLE all that friendly) - but these languages do have powerful, pretty, main-stream IDEs that have been written for them by third parties...and this is where QB64 is lacking.

Perhaps, with Dave's permission, his IDE could be bundled with QB64 as a first step, an alternative IDE? Maybe some mention of alternative IDE's could become prominent on the QB64.org site?

I'm not saying we need to scuttle the current QB64 IDE, only that it probably isn't winning us a lot of users. :)

I suppose the real question is: what is the vision for QB64?

Dave

[davidshq]

I am in agreement or at least neutral with most of your sentiments in this last post, would just note that Visual Studio Code is open source...and Microsoft has moved a long ways towards fully embracing open source. I wouldn't expect VSC to be going anywhere soon...and if Microsoft did jump ship, there would be a huge community to continue its development without them. :)

[wafflehouse72]

I hope this thread doesn't die.
I personally use Dav's IDE and have since day one.
If I'm just editing then I use Sublime Text with a qbasic highlighting pack loaded.

[FellippeHeitor]

Welcome to the forum, wafflehouse72

[andymule]

I started something. I have never made a VSCode extension, but I seemed to have stubbed one together (thanks to the autogen tool `yo`). I have syntax highlighting working (sort of), and see can compile from the command line and see error output. I think we've got everything we need for a V1 integration!

It really just needs to behave as well as QB64's error reporting and highlight the first offending line. I can imagine for V1 just constantly compiling the buffer in the background and highlighting the offending line red in VSCode with error output on hover.

https://github.com/andymule/qb64-vscode

Started Reddit thread here too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/qbasic/comments/akohq9/started_vscode_extension_for_qb64_have_no_idea/

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[FellippeHeitor]

That's a very valuable effort, andymule.

[RNBW]

Dav
Any news look your update of Dav's IDE?

[Pete]

Tommy Chong says... Dav's not here, man.

Terri Richie's gone AWOP, too. They both make good stuff. Hope to see them surface, soon.

Pete