PB to C++ open source project using uCalc Transform

[Daniel Corbier]

I have started an open source project for converting PowerBASIC source code to C++.  The purpose is to allow PB programmers to re-compile versions of their existing programs, on other platforms, such as Mac OS, Android, other Linux flavors, and any platform that has a C++ compiler.  This will also be helpful in recompiling 64-bit versions of your DLLs for Windows.  I'm doing this because I need this myself.  I assume that others do too.  Such a project might seem overwhelming.  But with uCalc Transform, it will be a lot easier than you might think.  It does the heavy lifting for parsing complex things, leaving participants in the project with a much simpler task of defining straightforward conversion patterns.  The more people participate, the sooner it can be completed.

I'd like to invite PB programmers to join the open source PB to C++ project at:

https://github.com/uCalc/powerbasic-to-cpp




Note: uCalc Transform is a commercial program.  However, you do not have to purchase anything to join the project.  The download for uCalc Transform is fully functional.  It has no time limit.  Unlicensed users will simply see 2 message boxes at startup.  If you prefer to purchase a license and not see those boxes, ask for a discount for participants.  I'll also be happy to give away a free license to several of the best contributors.

[Chris Holbrook]

This looks like a lot of fun and I wish I had time to get involved. I am presently involved in developing frameworks to which to port code and when it comes to the port itself I will look hard at your project. I was planning to use awk scripts.

Good luck!

[Daniel Corbier]

Thanks Chris.  Documentation is incomplete for now, so feel free to ask questions about how to do things when you get to it.

[Brice Manuel]

This is a very interesting project.  I look forward to seeing how it progresses.

[Aslan Babakhanov]

Very interesting project. I started to re-learn C language (Books, forums and nice tutorials from Pierre), but it seems I'm far beyond from good C programmer.  I need to move PB application into QNX v6 using gcc and this tool might be helpfull.
It might be handy to convert, say DDT dialogs into wxWidgets or graphics command into an eqv. set of graphics libraries
 

[Daniel Corbier]

I'm happy to let everyone know that I released uCalc Transform 2.0 last night.  It has many enhancements over the previous version, and now includes a new directory dedicated to PowerBASIC snippets, many of which should be helpful in this project, such as one that finds variables throughout your code that were not explicitly declared with Dim and declares them, another that replaces type-specifiers with type names in declarations (like "Dim MyVar As String" instead of "Dim MyVar$") and removes the specifiers elsewhere, one that inserts ByRef for args that do not have an explicit ByVal or ByRef, and various other useful things.  Please visit http://www.ucalc.com/transform.html and check it out.

Documentation is limited, so I'll be happy to answer questions.