FreeBASIC 1.10.1 Programming in 14 Days: Master Types, Pointers, Objects, Files and the C Interface Through Daily Drills

Fourteen days. One compiler. Every listing compiled, every output captured. FreeBASIC looks like the BASIC of a home computer and compiles like C. Its Integer is 8 bytes, its records carry padding and its objects carry a hidden pointer, so habits from either side give wrong answers. Day 1 builds a program from the command line and measures its types. Day 5 starts cardfile, a card index, with one record. Day 7 adds objects and virtual methods. Day 14 assembles cardfile whole: a binary store, an in-memory index, a command shell and its tests. 313 worked examples, each a whole program compiled with fbc 1.10.1. 285 output blocks, each captured from a real run. 314 figures drawn for a black-and-white press. 994 problems over five sets a chapter. YOUR 14-DAY PATH Day 1 - The Program and its Types: integer and real types, text, conversion and the three dialects of one compiler. Day 2 - Deciding and Repeating: If, Select Case, the operators, short-circuit tests and every loop form. Day 3 - Procedures: Sub and Function, ByVal against ByRef, overloading, defaults and recursion. Day 4 - Arrays and Strings: fixed and dynamic arrays, bounds, many dimensions, and text taken apart and built. Day 5 - Types of Your Own: records, the padding inside them, unions, enums, methods and properties. Day 6 - Pointers and Memory: addresses, pointer types, New and Delete, Allocate, and pointers to procedures. Day 7 - Objects: Extends, Virtual, Abstract, the vtable measured in bytes, operators and copying. Day 8 - Modules and Scope: Include, headers, namespaces, public and private, a library and the build line. Day 9 - When Things Go Wrong: runtime errors, the checks and their cost, On Error, Assert and cleaning up. Day 10 - Files: text, random-access and binary files, and what each one writes to the disk. Day 11 - The Preprocessor: Define and Macro, conditional compilation, guards and compile-time asserts. Day 12 - Testing and Measuring: a test runner in forty lines, table-driven tests, timing and a caught regression. Day 13 - Talking to C and the System: names in the object file, the C runtime, strings and bytes across it, threads. > WHO IT IS FOR. Programmers who have written a program in any language and want FreeBASIC taught as a compiled language. Students and interview candidates who need to know what the compiler actually does. Not needed: C, object-oriented programming or an IDE. A text editor and the free fbc compiler are the whole toolchain. Download book source code from: {GitHub}/{mohammadnsaqib} 450 pages, black and white.