The forgotten language...

GfaBasic is no more. It's been in a coma for years now and it doesn't look like it will ever be revived. A sad thing indeed... so I made the switch to PureBasic. PureBasic is getting better all the time, and though on some fronts it may miss some of the 'finesse' of GfaBasic, it's making up for that in pure power :-) Here are four essential links...
 

PureBasic Survival Guide Official PureBasic homepage PureBasic forums GFA to PureBasic converts

You might have arrived here through Google. Welcome to my poor attempt at a homepage... oh well... number one in Google riding a dead horse (thanks, Bericko) is still number one :-) Then again, he who dies with the most number ones, is still dead... Hmmm.

If you do know what ever happened to Frank Ostrowsky (hope I spelled that right) or do know more about the facts and suspicions  surrounding the demise of GFA and the disappearence of GFAbasic drop me a line. I'm quite interested, though pretty much only for sentimental and historical reasons. Which is why I've kept this page on my website. A tribute to the past, here we go...

It's a famous and half forgotten language... GFAbasic. "It's basic, Jim, but not as we know it."

In short: GfaBasic started on the Atari ST, was ported to the Amiga and then to the PC (DOS). After that it was continued in a 16 bit Windows variant and (finally) a 32 bit version has arrived... It's now quite a few years old, and I guess the only people that use it are those that can't learn something else :-)

Just kidding. GfaBasic is, in fact, a highly compact, flexible language that produces quick and compact code, it checks every line the moment you enter it (saves on typos), offers statements similar to C, Pascal, other Basics, allows access to all Windows stuff (obviously only the Windows versions). And it isn't too expensive (although it should be cheaper as no one is using 16 bit programming languages anymore these days). Even better, there is now a 32 bit version available! (But, as my budget is tight, I haven't decided yet to buy it or not... anybody willing to sponsor me? :-))

Important! There are fully functional free trial versions of both the 16 and 32 bit versions available for download at the GFA website!

Can you tell how long ago I wrote this? Anyway... You can still find those downloads elsewhere. Now let's go on...

... or GfaBasic for Windows, 16 bit version. This is what I am currently using and it's simply fun to hack away a little. No, I'm not a professional programmer, it's just another way to relax... (Okay, I'm weird, but I never claimed I was otherwise :-))

Code is compact and rather fast, and there's a true compiler that makes stuff lightning fast. I'll add some real sample code when it's done... in the mean time, you can find a lot of information on Dale Bryant's website or a little information by my own introduction...

As the language is old and different versions have surfaced, I'm trying to chart the last (viable) releases of the old 16 bit version, so you know if you are up to date, or not... Unfortunately, GFA could not tell me what is the last one (too long ago, okay, I can understand that) so here's what I know about the different versions...

Latest version: GfaBasic32 v2. Visit the GFA website for more information.

There have been some other versions of GFA as well...

The oldest related language is Turbo Basic on an Atari XL, that's 8 bits and ooooooooold. It's not exactly GFAbasic but it was Frank Ostrowski's first basic, and it shows some of the features that made there way into the real thing...

When the Atari ST came out, Frank Ostrowski and GFA created GfaBasic. Just like the machine it ran on, it was something new, something different, and it proved to be extremely fast and flexible. There have been a number of different versions of the language for the ST, but like the ST the corresponding version of GfaBasic was discontinued. Note that the last OS versions on the ST and TT did not work well together with GfaBasic. Check out the internet.

It took GFA a long time to deliver a GfaBasic for the Commodore Amiga, in spite of the same 68000 processor as on the ST. Once it arrived, it was almost immediately outdated... it wasn't compatible with the new Intuition OS, and on top of that the Amiga died... another bygone era... And I'd better not touch the compiler subject... ouch.

I have seen some references to an Unix version of GFA, sometimes dubbed GfaBasix, but I've never encountered one, nor seen a price. Vapourware perhaps?

Then there is the Dos version... It's quite good, definitely fast, and except for some memory management problems (like all Dos applications, thanks Intel and Microsoft, grrrr...) it runs like hell, especially when compiled. I just wished it wouldn't force a clear screen (i.e. graphics mode) so you could write more 'common' Dos prompt tools. It runs on most machines, and there is a compiler available for it. The last versions were interpreter 4.55, compiler 1.07. You can still purchase updates from GFA (in fact I just did). It's rather similar to the 16 bit windows version.

So... this lanugage is not that bad, and you can try it for free... now... what are you waiting for?

Well, the fact that is isn't there anymore may do so... Why not try PureBasic?