Phoenix
Object
Basic

Key Features

Overview

Phoenix Object Basic is the perfect tool for Windows business application developers that want to deploy their skills in mixed Windows and Linux environments:

Rapid Application Development for Linux

Phoenix is an object-oriented RAD tool for Linux and Windows. It features the well-known visual design paradigm, where developers can 'paint' controls onto a form and build the functionality by setting object properties and defining object methods.

The Phoenix "GUI" library provides windows, forms, menu's and data aware controls, such as buttons, labels, listboxes and comboboxes, frames, etc. The "DB" library brings you database access, through database, dynaset and recordset objects.

The IDE features a source level debugger with breakpoints and watchpoints, single stepping and animated execution. The IDE is largely programmed in Phoenix Object Basic, so you can modify it to suit your precise needs.

Very short learning curve for VB or Access developers

Phoenix implements a full featured Basic language, that incorporates all the features you have come to expect from a production quality development language:

  • User defined datatypes, including objects
  • Exception handling with Try ... Catch and Throw
  • User defined events
  • Enumerated types
  • Modular organisation of each project
  • Ability to call functions in external libraries
  • Ability to create components

    Try it yourself, or read more about the language features in the documentation.

Fully object-oriented: use inheritance and polymorphism

Phoenix Object Basic extends the traditional Basic syntax to become fully object-oriented. The TYPE ... END TYPE syntax not just declares a datatype, but a class signature. Type definitions can include regular variable declarations, but also method and event declarations for that class signature.

  • Inheritance: A new class signature can inherit from an existing one by using the TYPE ... FROM ... END TYPE syntax. The derived signature can override methods when needed.
  • Polymorphism: Objects with a derived signature can be assigned to variables of the parent type; when an overridden method is called on that variable, the derived method is invoked (in C++ terms: a method is always virtual).

Fast execution, small executables

Phoenix compiles the Basic source code to an optimized bytecode representation. The bytecodes are executed by an efficient runtime engine. On a low-end 100Mhz Pentium machine, Phoenix executes in excess of 15,000 lines of code per second.

The executable works with a shared runtime library. This enables individual applications to be stored in small files, all working with one shared copy of the runtime library.

Specialized objects are placed in individual libraries, such as the GUI component library, the database library, etc. Phoenix only loads those libraries that your application needs, reducing memory need and start-up time.

Easy to distribute applications

The core Phoenix engine is all contained in one file and requires no special configuration files or settings. The standard Phoenix distribution further has 3 standard libraries (GUI, file access, database), which again require no configuration files. There are no fees for redistributing these files along with your application.