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REALbasic has been on the market for three years. It runs on Mac OS only, but produces full-featured applications for both Macintosh and Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME. REALbasic produces royalty-free applications quickly and easily.

REALbasic includes the standard features of an HLD tool. It is an object-oriented environment, using a dialect of BASIC as its language. Those familiar with object-oriented concepts will feel right at home using REALbasic’s environment. Although REALbasic is not compatible with Visual Basic on the PC, REALbasic code is designed to be similar in order to simplify the transition for ex-VB users.

Application interfaces are laid out visually. REALbasic simplifies the development process further with added touches such as extensive auto-complete, providing standard-sized interface controls as a default, and lining up interface elements automatically.

REALbasic offers high-level access to many low-level functions, including hooks to native OS routines.

REALbasic displays native interface widgets on all platforms.

REALbasic offers sprite capabilities and off-screen image manipulation, QuickTime, QuickTime VR, QuickTime Musical Instruments, and looping sound files.

The professional edition delivers applications for Windows, and adds database functionality. REALbasic offers simplified access to SQL-based databases, and has its own single-user database engine built in.

REALbasic’s three versions have been a developmental whirlwind. Version 1.0 was a pure Macintosh product. Version 2 brought database connectivity and targeting the Windows OS. Version 3 brought OS X compatibility. REAL Software’s aggressive beta program has allowed the quick release of many features in a beta state, with debugging ongoing.

REALbasic is developed by REAL Software, Inc., a company based in Austin, Texas, USA. REALbasic is available in a $149.95 standard edition, which delivers applications only for the Macintosh, and with no database capabilities; and a $349 professional edition, which is feature-complete. A time- and feature-limited trial version is available for free. Educational discounts are available on both the standard and professional editions.