Run BASIC 1.0.1 Build 2.44

Run BASIC is not just a little easier, but a lot easier than other web programming systems. When we started testing Run BASIC, our testers told us that Run BASIC was not what they expected. It is much easier than other systems they had tried.

Major Benefits:

1. Programming Model
   
   • Most web app systems model applications as a collection of pages. Information must be persisted between pages in some sort of datastore. Sometimes this is in memory but oftentimes it is done in a database or by passing files. Run BASIC does not force you to partition your applications in this way. Instead you can write your entire application as a single continuous program just like you would write a desktop app. You create a new page in your application by clearing the page and placing new things onto it in a dynamic way.
   • Traditionalist procedural programmers can create entire applications using subroutines and functions, similar to how it is done in popular languages like QBasic. This democratizes web programming because many casual programmers are comfortable with this way of coding software.
   • More object-oriented thinkers can componentize their systems into objects and call methods on them. The objects can be purely data, or they can render into a display buffer and be injected into a web page. This makes it easy to have different parts of a web page managed in a modular way.
     
2. User Interface Capabilities
   
   • An application's user interface is composed programmatically when the program runs. Interactivity is similar to that of desktop applications, with callbacks to tie user actions to program routines. It isn't necessary to marshall a web request and interpret it with a case statement or a session key. This all happens automatically and transparently so that you can focus on creating your application instead of dealing with complicated web programming techniques.
   • Run BASIC is designed to let you quickly create the user interface without worrying too much about presentation up front. This works because Run BASIC generates HTML for you automatically. Once everything is working then color, fonts, backgrounds and layout can be adjusted using simple CSS support features of Run BASIC.
   • It is also easy to embed any HTML into a page for custom effects or for the insertion of Javascript for powerful scripting.
3. Graphics
   
   • An easy to use graphics drawing system is built right into Run BASIC so that it is a trivial to draw graphics and insert them into web pages dynamically. Loading existing images into memory and drawing on them is also possible.
4. Web 2.0
   
   • These days there is a lot of demand for ways to do things with information that is presented on different sites, also often referred to as Web 2.0. Run BASIC can fetch files from other web sites and use a built-in XML parser to pull data from all over the Internet.
5. Database
   
   • Run BASIC has an included SQLite database engine which does not need any special knowledge to administer. The addition of simple to use commands makes database programming very convenient and accessible.
6. Browser Compatibility
   
   • The following browsers are supported for use with Run BASIC. Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox 2.x, Safari 3.x.
7. Web Server Details
   
   • Run BASIC is a special web server that allows you to create server-side web applications using a version of BASIC. The BASIC is not an add-on module like Perl or PHP is for Apache, but instead the BASIC is integrated tightly with the server.
   • Run BASIC includes a session manager that is transparent to the programmer. What this means is that when someone visits a web application that is hosted by Run BASIC that they are immediately given a session. If the user is then inactive long enough (this time period is adjustable in a server control panel) the session will time out. This means the application programmer doesn't have to be burdened with session logic.

Major Features:

1. All In One System - This means that you don't need to install or buy anything else to create and serve up web applications. Everything is there including a web server, a programming language, a database, and more and there's no complicated configuration or special technical expertise required unlike other web programming systems!
2. Easy BASIC language - A modern structured version of BASIC with web awareness built right in. Most web programming languages are loaded up with lots of esoteric web commands but Run BASIC is designed to be really clean and simple. Run BASIC does the hard work for you and hides the complexity of web programming.
3. Multiuser - You can develop multiuser web applications. Run BASIC takes care of the session management for you automatically.
4. Built in graphics - It's easy to draw graphics and include them in your web applications.
5. Database - The popular SQLite database system is built-into Run BASIC so you can create SQL database apps out of the box.
6. HTTPGET and XML - You can fetch XML documents from all over the web and read them using the built-in XML parser.
7. Click and deploy - Once you've created your web app, you can deploy it on your local network or on the Internet with the click of a button.
8. Community - Run BASIC has an energetic community of users online.