GLBCC Users Guide

1. Introduction

1.1. What is GLBCC

GLBCC stands for the GNU/Liberty Basic Compiler Collection. GLBCC is a full Liberty Basic compiler suite that runs on both Windows and Linux. It is capable of producing standalone executables that will execute at speeds that should rival any other production language. On Windows, Liberty Basic code compiled with GLBCC should completely blow Visual Basic code out of the water as far as speed is concerned.

1.2. A Simple Example "hello.bas"

To start off, lets say you had a file named hello.bas that contained the following code:
REM A Hello World example
PRINT "Hello World"
END
You could compile this file to hello.exe on Windows by either running the GLBCC executable in the C:\GLBCC\GLBCC-0.1.0\ directory and selecting the hello.bas file from the Open File dialog, or you can run the GLBCC executable directly with hello.bas as it's argument.  On Linux, simply run the command "glbcc hello.bas" to produce a hello binary file.

The resulting executable (hello.exe on Windows, and hello on Linux) is now ready to be distributed as is.  There are no dll dependencies, or dependencies on uncommon shared libaries.

2. Using GLBCC

2.1. GUI Mode

If GLBCC is started without any command line options, it will enter GUI mode and prompt the user to find a .bas file.  It will then ask if the user desires to customize the name of the executable.  If Yes is selected, another file dialog will be presented to select the name of the resulting executable.  Otherwise, the default executable extension will be added to the file (.exe on Windows, or nothing on Linux).

2.2. Command Line Mode

GLBCC also can be directed via command line arguments.  The first file name specified will be treated as the .bas file.  If a second file name is specified, then that will be the name of the resulting executable.   Otherwise, the default executable extension will be added to the first file.  Specifying a -x on Linux will cause GLBCC to generate a Windows executable.

2.3. Accessing GLBCC

2.3.1. Linux

GLBCC is located in the /usr/local/bin directory by default.  If you install GLBCC and cannot run GLBCC directly from the command line via the glbcc command, try adding /usr/local/bin to the beginning of your PATH variable with the following command

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

2.3.2. Windows

Windows users can access GLBCC by running the glbcc.exe file in the C:\GLBCC\GLBCC-0.1.0 directory.