For anyone still interested in 'Visual Basic' style application development, or for RAD development in general, take a look at Gambas: <a href="http://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html" rel="nofollow">http://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html</a><p>Gambas is a mature, current-generation OO BASIC, has a vast array of libraries, a JIT and is completely open source software.
As a "big flat file" -- does that mean things like PB_MessageRequester(), SYS_InitString(), etc., are also in the source code, or in a source library? If the source for those aren't included, then it's not really portable beyond the platforms it already supports.
PureBasic is <i>one of the best things in life</i> (if I may express my view).<p>--<p>The switch from FSAM to GCC slows down the compilation time. What about the compiled software speed?<p>Edit: the linked post is a few months old. In a later post, Fred (Laboureur) mentions an example of a +50% speed increase.
(Off-topic, but if anyone from PureBasic.fr's web team is here, please please <i>please</i> don't use country's flags to represent languages, just put the language name instead - if you want a visually distinctive but recognizable icon then use a wireframe globe icon)
The home page is a very good read : <a href="https://www.purebasic.fr/blog/" rel="nofollow">https://www.purebasic.fr/blog/</a>