Basic with a database (Linux only)

[bigriverguy]

If your curiosity bug bites, here is a link to an open source version of BASIC with an included multi-value database.  It is the open source version of OpenQM called ScarletDME (SDME for short).  It was released as an open source 32 version in 2007 and has been updated over the years to 64 bit by some dedicated programmers.  It is related to Pick like databases such as Universe, Unidata and D3.

It is multi-user and runs on current linux distros such as Debian 12, Ubuntu 23.10 and Fedora 39.  The BASIC included will be very familar to any Quick Basic lover. And, it manages a database without the use of SQL.

The website is https://www.sdme64.com.

[mnrvovrfc]

Thank you for this discovery.

Note that the 32 bit version has only been tested on 32 bit Debian 12 and 64 bit Ubuntu 23.10 with the 32 bit libraries installed.

Cannot be used on Linux with 32-bit processors, if they aren't Pentium IV or Pentium M, among the latest ones while the first 64-bit processors were beginning to appear on the market. Debian v12 "Bookworm" supports what is confusingly called "i686" as the only 32-bit.

Might have to see if this works on base of Debian "Bullseye" or on Ubuntu "Focal Fossa" or maybe even "Bionic Beaver", for those earlier 32-bit processors. Slackware still supports Pentium III and others that might be tagged "i586", definitely not those ancient Intel 486DX's barely able to run Windows v3.1. However, it's a real pain to get true "multilib" on Slackware. Requires precise instructions, because it's so easy to mess it up, and could still mess it up while trying to upgrade/update the operating system.

On Manjaro, which is Arch-based, might have to install Wine or something else to make sure to have as many of the 32-bit libraries as possible. But that also might not support Pentium III or earlier.

[bigriverguy]

Thank you for this discovery.

Note that the 32 bit version has only been tested on 32 bit Debian 12 and 64 bit Ubuntu 23.10 with the 32 bit libraries installed.

Cannot be used on Linux with 32-bit processors, if they aren't Pentium IV or Pentium M, among the latest ones while the first 64-bit processors were beginning to appear on the market. Debian v12 "Bookworm" supports what is confusingly called "i686" as the only 32-bit.

Might have to see if this works on base of Debian "Bullseye" or on Ubuntu "Focal Fossa" or maybe even "Bionic Beaver", for those earlier 32-bit processors. Slackware still supports Pentium III and others that might be tagged "i586", definitely not those ancient Intel 486DX's barely able to run Windows v3.1. However, it's a real pain to get true "multilib" on Slackware. Requires precise instructions, because it's so easy to mess it up, and could still mess it up while trying to upgrade/update the operating system.

On Manjaro, which is Arch-based, might have to install Wine or something else to make sure to have as many of the 32-bit libraries as possible. But that also might not support Pentium III or earlier.

May not work on earlier distros.  The 64 bit requires gcc 11 to compile. I assume that is also true of the 32 bit version. The primary focus of the installer was to enable an easy install of the 64 bit version.  The 32 bit installer was created because a one person wanted to run the coyote web server, only available for 32 bit.   He wanted to run it with 32 bit libraries installed on 64 bit systems.  No work is being done to back port it to ancient Linux OS releases.

The source is pulled from the geneb/ScarletDME repository on github.  C programmers may find the core "qm" executables built from C sources to be interesting.  However, other than that core, everything else is built in BASIC (found in the GPL.BP directory).  In that way it is much like Gambas3, a core interpreter written in C with everything else written in the internal BASIC language.

There is an API available to access the database from other languages.  I currently use it as I am building an admin tool using Gambas3.  Certainly QB64 could be used to access the database.