Turbo Basic
Screenshot of PowerBasic for Windows 9.0 IDE and an example compiled Windows GUI.
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| Developer | Robert "Bob" Zale (b. 1945, d. 2012) |
|---|---|
| First appeared | 1989 |
| Stable release |
10.0 (4 May 2011)
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| Website | www |
| Influenced by | |
| Turbo Basic | |
PowerBASIC, formerly Turbo Basic, is the brand of several commercial compilers by PowerBASIC Inc. that compile a dialect of the BASIC programming language. There are both MS-DOS and Windows versions, and two kinds of the latter: Console and Windows. The MS-DOS version has a syntax similar to that of QBasic and QuickBASIC. The Windows versions use a BASIC syntax expanded to include many Windows functions, and the statements can be combined with calls to the Windows API.
The first version of the DOS compiler was published as BASIC/Z, the very first interactive compiler for CP/M and MDOS. Later it was extended to MS-DOS/PC DOS and in 1987 Borland distributed it as Turbo Basic.
Turbo Basic was originally created by Robert "Bob" Zale (1945–2012) and bought from him by Borland. When Borland decided to stop publishing it (1989), Zale bought it back from them, renamed it to PowerBASIC and set up PowerBASIC Inc. to continue support and development of it; it was later called PBDOS.
PowerBASIC went on to develop Basic compilers for Windows, first PBWIN — their flagship product — then PBCC, described below.
On November 6, 2012, Robert Zale, the creator of PowerBASIC, died. For a time, it was assumed that the company might cease operations. His wife, Mrs. Vivian Zale, posted on 8 March 2014 to the PowerBASIC forums a statement that the company would continue in operation. On 10 May, 2015, Mrs. Zale announced that work was continuing on new versions of PowerBASIC compilers.
On November 2, 2016, Vivian Zale announced her intention to begin seeking a buyer for the company. The active development of the next generation of PowerBASIC products is now stopped and they no longer expect to release PBWin11/PBCC7, which were already in beta testing when Bob Zale died, nor the 64-bit compilers or PB/Pro (PBWin and CC in one compiler) which were still in the alpha stages.
On January 31, 2017, Adam Drake announced Drake Software had acquired the PowerBasic source code from PowerBasic, Inc., with the intention of updating and improving the functionality of the product. This was later confirmed by Vivian Zale with a forum post thanking the members for their support.
PowerBASIC programs are self-contained and use no runtime file to execute. In all versions of the compiler the applications compile without external libraries, though you can use such libraries if desired. PBDOS creates 16-bit DOS MZ executable files, while PBWIN and PBCC create 32-bit Portable executable (PE) files.
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