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REALbasic 3.0 by Erick Tejkowski

REALSoftware recently released the much-anticipated third version of their award winning REALbasic programming environment. Sporting an impressive list of 100 new features, REALbasic 3.0 continues the tradition of providing cross-platform visual programming using a simple-to-learn version of the popular BASIC language. Besides giving you the opportunity to create applications visually with drag-and-drop ease, REALbasic 3.0 lets you build them for Mac OS 68K, Mac OS PPC, Windows 95/98/NT/2000, and now even Mac OS X! Yes, you read correctly. You can create software for all of these platforms without changing one line of code. This feature alone makes REALbasic 3.0 a worthy addition to your toolbox. Below is a sample application compiled for each of the platforms. Click the thumbnail to view a larger screenshot for each.

New Items

In addition to Carbon compatibility, REALbasic 3.0 adds many improvements that make the programming process easier (and more fun) than ever. Some of these include:
  • New Animation Engine
  • Searchable Language Reference - Look up any command without leaving REALbasic.
  • New Autocompletion features - Completes code for you as you type. (see image below)
  • High resolution printing
  • New Toolbar and controls (see image below)

New Auto-Complete Features   Click to enlarge the new Toolbar
autocomplete.gif (8k)   toolbar.jpg (13k)

Advanced

Don't let the focus on simplicity fool you, though. REALbasic is very powerful when it comes to creating sophisticated applications. In addition to the customary AppleScript, XCMD, Shared Libraries, and native plugins for extending your applications, REALbasic can also directly access the Macintosh and Windows APIs. Furthermore, REALbasic gives you instant access to a variety of databases (4D, Oracle, SQL), as well as its own native database format.

The Bad News

While REALSoftware claims that REALbasic 3.0 is Carbon compatible, this is only partially true. Since Mac OS X has not yet been released, the implementation of Carbon in REALbasic 3.0 is also incomplete. The good news is that it appears to work well under with the current beta release of Mac OS X and REALSoftware has a free update in the works when Mac OS X finally does arrive.

Conclusions

REALSoftware has done it again! They've built a compelling development tool at a competitive price. My copy of REALbasic has always paid for itself, and I don't have any reason to think this version won't be the same. With the new Carbon compatibility, REALbasic is certain to be an invaluable tool when Mac OS X arrives.

REALbasic 3.0 comes in two flavors: Standard and Professional. The Standard version compiles for 68K, PPC, and Carbon.. The Professional version adds Windows compatibility as well as the database features. Academic pricing is also available.

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