Click on New Project.
In the opened dialog Select a project click on Graphical Application in the right panel.
Name the project HelloWorld
Select a location for the project in the left panel
Once done click button Create

Meet the IDE

The IDE, short for Integrated Development Environment, is the place to be, for developing Gambas applications. As the term suggests is is all that is needed to develop in Gambas, integrated into one application. Do note that the Gambas IDE is written in Gambas, so you get an idea of the power of the language.

The IDE is mainly divided into 3 big sections. These sections can have further subdivisions depending on where you are and what you are doing in your project. These 3 main sections are:

Menu and toolbar section
The Project Browser
The Form/Code Editor

The Menu and toolbar section is quite self explanatory.

The Project Browser shows you all that is part of the project. It will hold the form related files, the files with code, but it can hold much more, actually all that you think you need in your project, like image files, license files etc.

The Form/Code Editor is where most of the work is done. You can design your forms here, switch between code and form design, and write your code to make it all work. The looks of the Form/Code Editor are situational, meaning you will get another layout when in form design then when in code design. Even better, if you click on an image in the Project Browser it will change into an image editor.

Create a control, write some code

Make sure to click on FMain in the Project Browser before you continue with the next step.

You are going to add a button control to the form. You will find the button in the Form/Code Editor subsection Toolkit.

Click on the Button control and next drag a rectangle on the form the size of the button. In the Properties the subsection above the Toolkit scroll down to the Text property of the Button and change it to Hello.

Double click on the Button. This will open the code editor in the click event of the created button. In the click event for Button1 (your created button) you place code you want to be executed when Button1 is clicked. Type the code shown in the illustration below for the click event.

Run your project

Now that all is setup all that is left is see if it works. The Gambas IDE allows you to run your projects from the IDE, so you can easily test them. For this press F5 on your keyboard. This will run your application.

Congratulations, you have just created and run you first GUI project in Gambas.

Page revisions

Getting Started With The IDE by: W. Raets - Aug 24th, 2025