FreeBASIC! It will compile a working program on a 64-bit machine. It also has a QuickBASIC compatible mode, which will compile QuickBASIC code with minimal changes. The manual can be viewed here. And this page is where you download the compiler and IDE. There are two; I've used FB-IDE.

There you go... you've just used two of my favorite words... Basic... and FREE!!!
Thanks for the suggestion, I'm already looking into it.

 

You're right, for a program as simple as this I'm sure .NET would work just fine, but that assumes it will only be used on a PC. I know there are some open source third-party projects out there working to get .NET to run on different platforms, but to my knowledge none of them are all that dependable.

Thanks for clarifying, you're absolutely right--cmartinez would need to ensure a JRE (Jave Runtime Environment) is installed on the computer before running the application.

While attempting to not derail this thread too much, Mono is used quite a bit: see their showcase. If you've ever heard of the Unity game engine, it relies heavily on Mono.

No matter the solution, any route you pick will have something that you will have to have for it to work (e.g. having a runtime environment, interpreter, processor the program was compiled against).

 

@DerStrom8, thank you so much for your opinion, and also for offering your help in writing the Java code, but I think I'll go with either PureBasic or FreeBASIC. I think that would be the quickest and easiest solution for my small problem.
@tshuck, thanks for your help too!

 

While attempting to not derail this thread too much, Mono is used quite a bit: see their showcase. If you've ever heard of the Unity game engine, it relies heavily on Mono.

No matter the solution, any route you pick will have something that you will have to have for it to work (e.g. having a runtime environment, interpreter, processor the program was compiled against).

Wow! That Mono thing sure looks interesting, thanks!

 

@DerStrom8, thank you so much for your opinion, and also for offering your help in writing the Java code, but I think I'll go with either PureBasic or FreeBASIC. I think that would be the quickest and easiest solution for my small problem.
@tshuck, thanks for your help too!

No problem! Glad to hear you found something you're comfortable with

Good luck!
Matt

 

I think I'll go with either PureBasic or FreeBASIC

Just be aware that if you ever move to another machine you will have to install the interpreter again on each machine you use it on.

 

Just be aware that if you ever move to another machine you will have to install the interpreter again on each machine you use it on.

I'm under the impression that PureBasic can generate stand alone executables... and maybe FreeBasic also has that capability.

 

I'm under the impression that PureBasic can generate stand alone executables... and maybe FreeBasic also has that capability.

If that's the case, then it's compiling against the instruction set available to your processor. You should be fine as long as you use a computer with a compatible instruction set.

 

This is EXCELLENT!
FreeBasic compiles standalone executables and has almost the same syntax as QBasic!

 

Problem solved! Thanks everyone for helping me out with this small problem. Especially @djsfantasi for suggesting FreeBasic... I owe you a beer!