---> Is this the latest version of Euphoria?
      Visit:  http://www.RapidEuphoria.com
      
 ---> To install Euphoria see install.doc
      
 ---> What's new in this release?
      See relnotes.doc (after installing)

 

Welcome to Euphoria! ...

End User Programming with Hierarchical Objects for Robust Interpreted Applications

Euphoria has come a long way since v1.0 was released in July 1993. There are now hundreds of registered users, located in 41 countries around the world. There are also thousands of non-registered users. There is a Euphoria newsgroup, alt.lang.euphoria, as well as an automated mailing list with hundreds of users subscribed. The Euphoria Web site contains over 500 contributed .zip files packed with Euphoria source programs and library routines. Dozens of people have set up their own independent Web pages with Euphoria-related content. Euphoria has been used in a variety of commercial programs. The 32-bit DOS version has been used to create many exciting high-speed action games, complete with Sound Blaster sound effects. The 32-bit Windows version has been used to create numerous GUI, utility and Internet-related programs. The Linux version has been used to write X Windows GUI programs, CGI programs, and lots of useful tools and utilities.

Yet Another Programming Language?

Euphoria is a very-high-level programming language with several features that set it apart from the crowd:

• Euphoria programs run on 32-bit extended DOS, 32-bit Windows and now Linux.

• The language is flexible, powerful, and easier to learn than BASIC.

• There is no waiting for compiles and links - just edit and run.

• You can create and distribute a royalty-free, stand-alone .exe file.

• Dynamic storage allocation is fundamental to Euphoria. Variables grow or shrink in size without the programmer having to worry about allocating and freeing chunks of memory. Elements of an array (Euphoria sequence) can be a dynamic mixture of different types and sizes of data.

• Variable types can be as rigid or as flexible as you like. You can specify the precise set of legal values that may be assigned to any variable. You can easily write generic code that works on any type of data.

• Euphoria is not a true object-oriented language, but has features that support object-oriented programming. Euphoria is simple, but very powerful. Problems that require dozens of obscure statements in C++, can often be solved in Euphoria with just a few simple statements.

• Euphoria provides extensive run-time error checking for: out-of-bounds subscripts, uninitialized variables, bad parameter values for library routines, illegal value assigned to a variable, and many more. If something goes wrong you'll get a full error message, with a traceback and a dump of variable values - no mysterious machine "lockups" or crashes.

• Program execution speed is 10 to 20 times faster than Microsoft QBasic, and 34 times faster than either Perl or Python.

• Euphoria programs are not constrained by any 640K or 64K memory restrictions for which MS-DOS is infamous. The DOS32, WIN32 and Linux versions of Euphoria let you use all of the megabytes of memory on your system seamlessly, and if that isn't enough, a swap file on disk will provide additional virtual memory.

• An integrated, easy-to-use, full-screen source-level debugger/tracer is included.

• Both an execution-count profiler, and a time profiler are available.

• A full-screen, multi-file editor with color syntax highlighting and auto-completion of Euphoria statements is provided, complete with Euphoria source code that you are free to modify.

• A large collection of interesting demo programs written in Euphoria is provided.

• There is a large and rapidly growing collection of excellent 3rd party programs and libraries, most with full source code.

• The DOS32 implementation of Euphoria on MS-DOS is full and complete. If necessary, you can access DOS software interrupts. You can call machine-code routines. You can even set up your own hardware interrupt handlers. Several high-speed action games, complete with Sound Blaster sound effects have been developed 100% in Euphoria, without the need for any machine code. Some of these games are now in commercial distribution.

• The WIN32 implementation of Euphoria lets you access WIN32 API routines, as well as C routines in 32-bit DLLs created by yourself or a 3rd party. With David Cuny's Win32Lib and other free 3rd-party packages you can easily create Windows GUI and Internet programs in Euphoria.

• The Linux implementation of Euphoria lets you access C routines and variables in Linux shared libraries, for tasks ranging from graphics, to X windows GUI programming, to Internet CGI programming. The good news is, you'll be programming in Euphoria, not C.

Who Would Benefit from Using Euphoria?

	novices / students	-	Euphoria is one of the simplest and easiest of all languages to learn.
	hobbyists	-	Take a look at some of the games and high-speed graphics demos we've written, then visit the Web site and download some much better games and demos written by Euphoria users.
	professionals	-	You can develop a reliable, maintainable, fully-debugged program in much less time in Euphoria than in C/C++.
		-	Euphoria can be used as a sophisticated batch file language.
		-	Euphoria is great for quick, easy development of file filters and other utilities.
		-	You can easily develop GUI and Internet programs without needing a 6-week training course.
		-	You can distribute your program royalty-free as a .exe file.

Platforms and Editions

Euphoria runs on three different platforms, DOS32, WIN32 and Linux, and comes in two different editions: a Public Domain Edition and a Complete Edition. Both editions will run any Euphoria program of any size at full speed, and will report all "compile-time" errors such as syntax errors, undeclared variables etc. The Complete (registered) Edition has these extra features:

• you can convert any Euphoria program into a single, stand-alone, tamper-resistant .exe file for easy distribution. (See bind.doc)

• you can profile any Euphoria program to determine the performance "hot spots" and to find logical errors. Both execution-count profiling and time-profiling (DOS32 only) are provided.

• you can get full diagnostic information for run-time errors in any size of program. The Public Domain Edition provides full run-time diagnostics for programs up to 300 statements in size.

For programs over 300 statements, a run-time error in this Public Domain Edition will simply cause your program to halt with a brief message. The usual fully-detailed diagnostics, including a dump of all variable values and other debugging information, will not be provided. However, the excellent source-level debugger will remain fully operational, and you can insert debug print statements the way you would in C/C++ or other languages. Note that C/C++ and other compiled languages do very little checking for run-time errors, and provide very little diagnostic information when a run-time error occurs. Your productivity will be much higher, programming in Euphoria.

Regarding Statement Count:

Blank-lines and comments are not counted, and the standard include files in euphoria\include are free (if not altered significantly). Useful 3rd party files can be stamped by RDS, making them free, provided they are not altered significantly. You can put many statements on one line, or you can split a statement across many lines -- it won't affect your statement count.

We want you to enjoy writing some great programs in Euphoria. Later, when you decide that you like the language, and want to take advantage of the enhanced features in the Complete Edition, we hope you will register. Registration costs only $39 (DOS32+WIN32) or $25 (Linux), and you can reduce or even eliminate this cost by contributing useful code for our Web site. See register\register.doc for details, or run: ex how2reg.ex in the register subdirectory.

The documentation contained in this package comes in both plain text and HTML form. The plain text (.doc) files can be viewed with any text editor, such as Windows NotePad or WordPad. The HTML (.htm) files can be viewed with your Web browser. A tool that we developed in Euphoria allows us to automatically generate both plain text and HTML files, from a common source. Thus the content of each file in the doc subdirectory should be identical to the content of the corresponding file in the html subdirectory, aside from the lack of links, fonts, colors, etc. See doc\overview.doc (or html\overview.htm) for a summary of the documentation files.

There's over 20,000 lines of free Euphoria source code in this package. We encourage you to use it, copy it, modify it, distribute it, upload it etc.

You can freely distribute this Public Domain Edition, in whole or in part, so anyone can run a Euphoria program that you have developed. You are completely free to distribute any Euphoria programs that you write, royalty-free, even if you don't register.

You may not distribute the files ex.exe, exw.exe, exu, bind.ex, bind.bat, bindw.bat, bindu, shroud or shroud.bat that come with the Complete Editions.

To run the WIN32 version of Euphoria you need Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or (soon) Windows 2000.

To run the DOS32 version you need MS-DOS (or PC-DOS etc.) on any 386 or higher processor. ex.exe will use extended memory if it is available, but can run in 640K of conventional memory if that is all you have. It has been well tested under MS-DOS 4, 5, 6, 6.2 and 7.0, as well as DOS-prompt windows under Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98 and OS/2. Euphoria exploits the full 32-bit power of your PC. A DOS32 Euphoria program will run under DOS, or as a DOS application under Windows or OS/2 - just double-click on the file name, or open a DOS prompt window.

To run the Linux version of Euphoria you need any reasonably up-to-date Linux distribution, that has libc6 or later. For example, Red Hat 5.2, 6.0 or later will work fine.

Getting Started

1.	On DOS/Windows install Euphoria by typing:
	install
	Don't worry, it's easy to uninstall - see install.doc.
	On Linux see install.doc.
2.	After you install Euphoria, the documentation files will be in the doc and html directories. overview.doc gives an overview of the documentation. refman.htm (or refman.doc) should be read first. If you want to search for information on any topic, type guru.
3.	Have fun running the programs in the demo directory. Feel free to modify them, or run them in trace mode by adding:
	with trace trace(1)
	as the first two lines in the .ex or .exw file.
4.	Try typing in some simple statements and running them. You can use any text editor. Later you may want to use the Euphoria editor, ed, or download David Cuny's Euphoria editor from the Euphoria Web site. Don't be afraid to try things. Euphoria won't bite!
5.	See what2do.doc for more ideas.
6.	Visit the Euphoria Web site, download some files, and subscribe to the Euphoria mailing list (see web.doc).

If you are new to programming, and you find refman.htm hard to follow, download David Gay's interactive tutorial called "A Beginner's Guide To Euphoria". There's a link to it from the Euphoria Web site.

Notice to Shareware Vendors:

We encourage you to distribute this Public Domain Edition of Euphoria. You can charge whatever you like for it. People can use Euphoria for as long as they like without obligation. We make money from those who start to seriously develop large applications, and want technical support plus enhanced bind, profile, and debug support for large programs.

DISCLAIMER:

The Public Domain and Complete Editions of Euphoria are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. In no event shall Rapid Deployment Software be held liable for any damages arising from the use of or inability to use this product.