AutoIt and other programming languages which still support XP!

[Sergiaws]

I discovered that there is a programming language which is typically used for creating scripts like vbs. But it's possible to create a graphic application with that and even Wine can run these applications! What do you think about these programming languages? If you want, you can't mention and discuss about other programming languages which still support XP!

[Gansangriff]

COBOL! Supports big mainframes from times, when normal computers were filling a whole room. Old IBM is offering courses for Cobol, because there are old Cobol programs out there in use (in banks and insurances for example), that need maintenance.

FreeBasic has a current version for DOS. Cross-compiling between old and new hardware should be possible. I like it, because my beloved OHRRPGCE is written in FreeBasic, and that program still runs its current release on Windows 95 up to Android smartphones.

Old versions of Visual Studio can be used for targeting older operating systems, of course. Here is an example of someone trying to create a program for Windows 98 not that long ago. It will probably work on new computers, too.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22378738/install-net-app-developed-with-vs2012-on-windows-98

 

[Sergiaws]

There is another programming language called bgt, which is specially usefull for creating audiogames. The thin is that bgt was abandoned in 2016. I use to run a bgt game called Crazy Party inside Windows 2000 with Bwc's extended kernel, Windows XP and even Windows Vista/Longhorn build 4074 and of course newer Windows! I'm wondering if you can run BGT games inside Windows 98SE/ME with latest Extended Kernel core updates!

[Tripredacus]

The authors would point out that AutoIT is a scripting language and not a programming language. I'm sure there must be some reason for the difference... And I think it is because it requires something, such as how ActionScript is also a scripting language and not a programming language because it requires Flash to execute.

Kix was another old scripting language that could be used for XP, but it is not as fully featured as AutoIT was even back then. It was the reason why I even used AutoIT because Kix couldn't do something I needed.

[TrevMUN]

On 3/4/2021 at 12:46 AM, Gansangriff said:

FreeBasic has a current version for DOS. Cross-compiling between old and new hardware should be possible. I like it, because my beloved OHRRPGCE is written in FreeBasic, and that program still runs its current release on Windows 95 up to Android smartphones.

OHRRPGCE! Damn, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time! Back when I was in high school in the 90's I used to run with a group that worked on making games with that. Something rather charming about the way BAM conversions of MIDI sounded. That and Verge and Megazeux. What a time that was.

I wonder about Visual Studio. I know that newer versions up and dropped support for compiling to XP; is it possible to re-implement support somehow?

[FranceBB]

19 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

The authors would point out that AutoIT is a scripting language and not a programming language. I'm sure there must be some reason for the difference... And I think it is because it requires something, such as how ActionScript is also a scripting language and not a programming language because it requires Flash to execute.

Kix was another old scripting language that could be used for XP, but it is not as fully featured as AutoIT was even back then. It was the reason why I even used AutoIT because Kix couldn't do something I needed.

By the way, I'm one of the maintainers of FFAStrans which is entirely written in AutoIT and I can tell you that although the UI runs on XP, it shows some weird totally meaningless errors on XP when I try to create nodes, therefore the new beta version of AutoIT doesn't seem to be working correctly on XP...

[Tripredacus]

3 hours ago, FranceBB said:

By the way, I'm one of the maintainers of FFAStrans which is entirely written in AutoIT and I can tell you that although the UI runs on XP, it shows some weird totally meaningless errors on XP when I try to create nodes, therefore the new beta version of AutoIT doesn't seem to be working correctly on XP...

There is some versioning with AutoIT, but the developers do not really break the features down to my liking. Their responses are usually just "upgrade to the newest version" when some weird situation crops up. I think that you can still use older version of their kit, I just don't know if they keep archives of that on their site. I wish more companies used the Minecraft approach when it came to versioning.

[theelf]

I like Autohotkey more than autoit, specially because better ansi support in ahk

[FranceBB]

On 3/5/2021 at 2:38 PM, Tripredacus said:

There is some versioning with AutoIT, but the developers do not really break the features down to my liking. Their responses are usually just "upgrade to the newest version" when some weird situation crops up. I think that you can still use older version of their kit, I just don't know if they keep archives of that on their site. I wish more companies used the Minecraft approach when it came to versioning.

Absolutely, but unfortunately there are no arrays in the old version, which is a big disadvantage...

[The Shroomer 98]

Around 2 years ago, I was able to compile programs in C++ using the CodeBlocks IDE on Windows xp. I think Codeblocks still supports xp. There's a couple of IDEs that still support xp but out of the few I've tried, Codeblocks seemed to work best. I'm sure there are better though. I think you could also compile other languages with the compilers that support Codeblocks like Fortran or something.

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by The Shroomer 98

[gerwin]

Since you mentioned Code::Blocks, I just tried their last version in Windows XP x86. But it won't work:

Dependency Walker 2.2.6000 (32-bit)
codeblocks-20.03-32bit-nosetup\codeblocks.exe (3.050.510 bytes, 2 april 2020)

Dependencies with issues:
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-IO-L1-1-0.DLL                  Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-LOCALIZATION-L1-1-0.DLL        Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-LOCALREGISTRY-L1-1-0.DLL       Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-MISC-L1-1-0.DLL                Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-SECURITY-BASE-L1-1-0.DLL            Error opening file
[D? ]  API-MS-WIN-EVENTING-PROVIDER-L1-1-0.DLL        Error opening file
[D? ]  IESHIMS.DLL                                    Error opening file
[D? ]  WER.DLL                                        Error opening file
[ E ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-SYNCH-L1-1-0.DLL               19-12-2017 22:35  
[ E ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-SYSINFO-L1-1-0.DLL             19-12-2017 22:35  
[   ]  KERNEL32.DLL                                   19-03-2019 20:43  
[   ]  NTDLL.DLL                                      19-03-2019 20:43  
[D  ]  MPR.DLL                                        14-04-2008 21:32  

Version 16.01 from 2016 works. That is what I use regularly. I don't know about the versions in between v16 and v20.

Edit: Code::Blocks v17.12 (29-12-2017) seems to start up just fine here.

By far the most recent C/C++ compiler to pair it with is the backported MinGW v8.4.0 (04-03-2020) from ReactOS build environment v2.2.1.

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by gerwin

[The Shroomer 98]

9 hours ago, gerwin said:

Since you mentioned Code::Blocks, I just tried their last version in Windows XP x86. But it won't work:

Dependency Walker 2.2.6000 (32-bit)
codeblocks-20.03-32bit-nosetup\codeblocks.exe (3.050.510 bytes, 2 april 2020)

Dependencies with issues:
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-IO-L1-1-0.DLL                  Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-LOCALIZATION-L1-1-0.DLL        Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-LOCALREGISTRY-L1-1-0.DLL       Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-MISC-L1-1-0.DLL                Error opening file
[ ? ]  API-MS-WIN-SECURITY-BASE-L1-1-0.DLL            Error opening file
[D? ]  API-MS-WIN-EVENTING-PROVIDER-L1-1-0.DLL        Error opening file
[D? ]  IESHIMS.DLL                                    Error opening file
[D? ]  WER.DLL                                        Error opening file
[ E ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-SYNCH-L1-1-0.DLL               19-12-2017 22:35  
[ E ]  API-MS-WIN-CORE-SYSINFO-L1-1-0.DLL             19-12-2017 22:35  
[   ]  KERNEL32.DLL                                   19-03-2019 20:43  
[   ]  NTDLL.DLL                                      19-03-2019 20:43  
[D  ]  MPR.DLL                                        14-04-2008 21:32  

Version 16.01 from 2016 works. That is what I use regularly. I don't know about the versions in between v16 and v20.

Edit: Code::Blocks v17.12 (29-12-2017) seems to start up just fine here.

By far the most recent C/C++ compiler to pair it with is the backported MinGW v8.4.0 (04-03-2020) from ReactOS build environment v2.2.1.

 

Interesting, it has been 2 years since I last Installed CodeBlocks on xp, and actually compiled a program, so I guess things have changed. I'll edit this post later when I find out which CodeBlocks version I was running. Thank you for testing though.

Edited March 10, 2021 by The Shroomer 98

[RainyShadow]

Somewhat abandoned project, but MortScript is useful for simple programs. Once i made a helper bot for an online game with it.

I have also seen it being used in car navigation systems as it supports WinCE.

[gerwin]

On 3/10/2021 at 8:25 AM, The Shroomer 98 said:

Interesting, it has been 2 years since I last Installed CodeBlocks on xp, and actually compiled a program, so I guess things have changed. I'll edit this post later when I find out which CodeBlocks version I was running. Thank you for testing though.

It is just the way it is now. AFAIK recent compilers don't make XP compatible binaries by default. So unless users nag about it and devs are willing to put in some effort, things are no longer XP compatible.

But Code::Blocks v17.12 will do just fine. Maybe v17.12 is the nicest version, even

[DrunkenTanker]

On 3/9/2021 at 9:17 AM, The Shroomer 98 said:

Codeblocks still supports xp

I tried Codeblocks 20 and got error on the launch.