BASIC
BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of high-level programming languages designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz in 1964 in order to be easier to understand compared to low-level languages. One way BASIC languages do this is by affixing symbols to variables so their type is immediately distinguishable. Although BASIC wasn't designed by Microsoft, the company was by far the largest developer of the language, making versions for a couple dozen computer platforms.
Personal
The first programming language I ever saw was Color BASIC on a TRS-80 Color Computer, but I didn't do any programming with it. After that, I saw Atari BASIC and wrote only the most rudimentary of programs. Next, I used GW-BASIC and wrote a fair amount of simple programs, but the prime of by BASIC coding was in my teens when I wrote dozens of programs in QuickBASIC. In my late teens and early 20s, I focused more on Visual Basic before Microsoft discontinued it for Visual Basic.NET which isn't really a BASIC language at all. Although I'm a professional programmer now, and don't use BASIC for work, I will still often turn to FreeBASIC for simple tasks or prototyping because it can produce working usable programs so quickly. My dream is to create a modern form of BASIC which has a very large command set, which I call VeryBASIC.
List of BASIC languages
This list is not expected to be complete. It lists those versions of BASIC that are important to me as well as very important versions of BASIC.
| Name | Released | Developers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altair BASIC | 1978-07-14 | Microsoft (Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Monte Davidoff) | Ran on the Altair 8800. |
| Applesoft BASIC | 1977-??-?? | Marc McDonald, Ric Weiland | Replaced Integer BASIC on the Apple II. |
| Atari BASIC | 1979-??-?? | Paul Laughton, Kathleen O'Brien | Used on the Atari 8-bit series. |
| Color BASIC | 1980-??-?? | Microsoft (Bill Gates) | Used on the TRS-80 Color Computer series. |
| Commodore BASIC | 1977-??-?? | Microsoft | Used on the Commodore series. |
| Darmouth BASIC | 1964-06-?? | John Kemeny, Thomas Kurtz | The original version. |
| FreeBASIC | 2004-??-?? | The FreeBASIC Development Team | A 64-bit BASIC. |
| GW-BASIC | 1981-??-?? | Microsoft | Distributed with MS-DOS versions 3 and 4. |
| HP Time-Shared BASIC | 1969-11-?? | Mike Green | Designed for the HP 2100 series. |
| Integer BASIC | 1976-??-?? | Steve Wozniak | Used on Apple I and early versions of Apple II. |
| N88-BASIC | 1981-12-?? | Microsoft | Designed for the NEC PC-8800 series. |
| QB64 | 2007-??-?? | QB64Team | A 64-bit BASIC. |
| QuickBASIC | 1985-08-18 | Microsoft | Limited version included with MS-DOS 5.0 and above. |
| Sinclair BASIC | 1979-01-29 | John Grant, Steve Vickers | Using on Sinclair series. |
| Visual Basic | 1991-??-?? | Microsoft | Initial version was MS-DOS and Windows 3 and later versions of Windows. |
Media
Books
Compute!s Guide to Adventure Games.
Basic Software Library: Volume 1 - Business and Recreational.
My First Book About BASIC.
Tim Hartnell's Giant Book of Computer Games.
Videos
Links
- 8bitworkshop.com - Online development.
