(04-09-2024, 06:33 PM)SpriggsySpriggs Wrote: The backend is written in C++ but the majority of the IDE is written in QB64 itself. Galleon basically used C++ until he could create something that could write itself.

(04-09-2024, 10:47 PM)SMcNeill Wrote: QB64 is a multi-language software.   What QB64 and QB64PE both do, is they take BAS-code, then translate it to C-code, where a c-compiler then compiles it to a working executable.

For almost all of the BAS handling, we tend to use QB64.bas which you can find in the /source folder.  This is the code which makes our IDE and which we use to enter our program with.  It does the syntax checking, formatting, and all such things for us.  It all does the translation process for us, which processes those BAS commands that you enter, and turns them into C-commands.

libqb.cpp and all the rest of QB64 contains the c-code which holds the libraries, routines, and such that actually compiles.  They're located inside the internal/c folder, and the gcc compiler can be found one subfolder deeper than them, in the internal/c/compiler folder.

So the workflow is basically:

source/qb64pe.exe <-- enter your program here.  It translates it to C-code.

internal/c/qbx.cpp  <-- this is the actual entry point where the C-code exists (what you write is basically #INCLUDEd in it), which we compile when you hit F5 in the IDE.

internal/c/compiler <-- and here is where the compiler/linker, and all exists which compiles that completed C-code into the executable for you.

(04-09-2024, 06:27 PM)Tim Wrote: How is QB64 written? What coding language is used? And is it always the same one?

(04-09-2024, 06:33 PM)SpriggsySpriggs Wrote: The backend is written in C++ but the majority of the IDE is written in QB64 itself. Galleon basically used C++ until he could create something that could write itself.

1.  On a different source environment (different processor and/or operating system) that does have a compiler for that language, you write the compiler to be able to compile itself, then once it works, you transfer the executable it creates to the target computer environment. All further improvements to the compiler can now be written using that compiler. (This is how the first compiler for a brand-new language has to be written.)
   
2. On the same or a different environment, you use some other language to write the compiler. It really does not have to be complicated, it just has to have enough features to be able to compile a compiler written in the desired language, that can also compile itself. In effect, the compiler has to be written twice, once in the other language, and then itself. Given this to be the case, the first compiler written in the other language is really only intended to be used once, to compile the compiler that can compile itself. That program can be thrown away, as, in the previous example, further improvements to the new compiler can now be written using that compiler. (This was the method Nicklaus Worth used to create the first Pascal compiler, by writing it in Fortran.)
   
3. The starting compiler in the second example is the compiler, it is not rewritten in the desired language. (This is how the Gnu Pascal Compiler operates. It is a program written in C/C++ which "compiles" Pascal code into C.)
   
4. Some combination of the above. (QB64/QB64pe use this method.)
   

(04-09-2024, 06:40 PM)Tim Wrote: So, any and all new features are written in QB64, then?

(04-09-2024, 08:12 PM)SpriggsySpriggs Wrote: Well, no. Not everything. It depends on what the feature is and how it would be best implemented.

(04-09-2024, 10:47 PM)SMcNeill Wrote: libqb.cpp and all the rest of QB64 contains the c-code which holds the libraries, routines, and such that actually compiles.  They're located inside the internal/c folder, and the gcc compiler can be found one subfolder deeper than them, in the internal/c/compiler folder.

• The C/C++ compiler
  
• The Gnu assembler
  
• The Gnu linker
  
• The Gnu archiver
  
• The Gnu Fortran compiler
  
• Several tools related to object management and debugging
  
• The MinGW environment, which is duplicating many utilities already in with the C compiler.
  

(04-10-2024, 12:33 AM)Tim Wrote: So, would it be helpful to learn C in order to better understand and/or contribute to QB64PE?

(04-10-2024, 02:36 AM)Tim Wrote: Thank you, everyone, for the answers. Still learning here. But never bored.