STAZ SOFTWARE SHIPS FUTUREBASIC, RELEASE 5
August 10, 2001, Diamondhead, MS; STAZ Software, Inc. is pleased to
announce FutureBASIC, Release 5, the fastest Macintosh Basic development
environment ever created.
STAZ Software has implemented a large number of improvements in processing
speed; Edit fields, for example, are displayed 5 times as fast. But it is
floating point numbers that benefit most from the optimization. Floating
point registers are now used and the programmer has complete control in the
placement of variables in the registers.
Release 5 introduces two major features in the language:
– Dynamic arrays
This new mechanism allows an array of variables to be created that will
grow dynamically according to the needs of your program. DIM DYNAMIC will
declare the array, KILL DYNAMIC will dispose of the memory used, COMPRESS
DYNAMIC will resize the memory block preserving only useful data. READ and
WRITE DYNAMIC allow you to read from and write to a disk file.
– AppleEvents
A new vector has been introduced in the Standard BASIC runtime that will
simplify management of AppleEvents: ON APPLEEVENT(class, type) will allow
you to direct the flow of your program to intercept AppleEvents as you
would MENU or DIALOG events. You may send messages to others processes with
the SENDAPPLEEVENTS statement. GETPROCESSINFO provides information about
current processes.
Other improvements include the ability to pass floating-point numbers to
Toolbox calls, the relaxing of the limitation of the number of local
function parameters (now a maximum of 16), the ability to display the
content of all types of records with a single statement, and the addition
of toolbox calls related to temporary memory.
The environment has been strengthened to handle critically low memory
situations. The Debugger is faster and it can now display the contents of
arrays. Two new statements have been introduced: DEF DEBUGSTRING and DEF
DEBUGNUMBER, to allow you to display the contents of your variables at any
time in an independent and temporary window. The brave among you will find
also on the CD-ROM a new tool allowing them to analyze the assembly code
generated by the compiler, whether this be for learning or optimization.
The environment has been improved for work group. Compilation times,
already very fast, benefit from this work with a very sensitive
acceleration during network file access
FutureBASIC, Release 5 is delivered with over 1500 example files that cover
multiple programming areas on the Macintosh, from the elementary use of the
language statements to the integration of new Apple technologies. Among all
these examples you will find: – the Game Engine, a new runtime specially
designed to support OpenGL for the creation of ‘Doom-like’ games
– the source code for FuturePaint 2.0, the excellent freeware written with
FBII – an excellent case study, detailing in 12 steps how you could
optimize your code for speed using FB features – a demo of DataShell, a
commercial framework dedicated to FB, to access Valentina databases.
The Object runtime and Appearance runtime are close to their final stages,
while the Carbon runtime is under way.
FutureBASIC has a suggested retail price of $169 for individual copies and
is sold by subscription. Upgrades are shipped on CD for a period of one
year. Renewal price (and the upgrade price from FBII) is $99. Lab packs and
site licenses are also available. The software is distributed by STAZ
Software, Inc. (800) 348-2623. FB is also available in French, German, and
Italian, and Japanese.
Best,
-STAZ ~)~
800.348.2623 Orders http://www.stazsoftware.com
228.255.7086 FAX mailto:staz@stazsoftware.com