What is the BASIC programming language?

Question

BASIC programming language.

Answer 1

BASIC stands for " Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code."
BASIC is used in many business applications and it still considered a valid choice as a programming language for some purposes. Microsoft's Visual Basic adds Object-Oriented features and a graphical user interface to the standard BASIC.

Answer 2

The Q/A is for asking questions when you have them, not so you post a question and answer it...
If you want to share your knowledge do it via lesson factory. Thanks!

Answer 3

Yup! @Martin we are only years apart age wise ( both in our 50s ) but hold similar fondness for the old B.A.S.I.C & Advanced B.A.S.I.C language(s).
I taught my son(s) B.A.S.I.C. Fortran, Pascal, RPG 1 / 2 & 3 and Jquery at early ages ( now in their 30s ). One works for Apple and One for Microsoft development, and one for IBM - They all have told me time and time again how thankful they were to me teaching them and still refer to my books when in doubt.

Answer 4

I am Laughing So Hard... BASIC and Advanced BASIC were taught way back when. 💬 The memories of a young teen learning -

Answer 5

Loved beating away on my Trash 80s - POKEs and PEEKs and the many hidden codes...

Answer 6

@Martin you are right, it has not much to do. I just remembered it because of my programs in basic that used GOTO a lot, and today this is not more the case. I still use microchip because it costs less than one dollar the piece, and maybe only a 555 is cheaper. For bigger projects I would also not take them. Well, I don't know because than I wold be anyhow writing code in C.

Answer 7

Interesting tidbit, for those, like me, who grew up with MS-DOS and QBasic, your old code can not only run, but compile. See QB64 Project. Gawd, the reminiscing in this thread reminds me of SCREEN. 7 was popular, but iirc, I used a higher res mode (think 9). I drew with LINE and PAINTed all assets at start. Game took a while to load. Wish I could find my old source.

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Answer 8

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC

Answer 9

This is a great read about the founding history of B.A.S.I.C. including the first 14 commands:
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/69316/basic

Answer 10

I also played around with POKEs until the processor stopped because I hit something I shouldn’t. Peter Norton guides using PC ;) And to bring more confusion to the topic, the most basic language is assembler (or assembly), not C. And for the GOTO haters, try to find for, while, loop, etc. in assembler (specially RISC). Good luck. :)

Answer 11

@Martin Taylor hi, if you look into any microchip manual you will find explicitly goto in the list of instructions. And call it goto, jump, unconditional branch, etc. There is no difference, is there? And about basic, may I be more explicit and quote myself: "<Sarcasm on> And to bring more confusion to the topic, <Sarcasm off>…". And I found a goto hater or lover?

Answer 12

BASIC stands for Beginners Allpurpose Symbolic Instruction Code...
GWBASIC, QBASIC, VBASIC are some examples...
U can try VBASIC for a GUI experience

Answer 13

The BASIC programming language is used with the PICK operating system. In some cases the language is called PICK.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system

Some of the IBM systems use it. Large financial institutions use it to this date. Delta, HomeDepot, and a lot of distribution companies. There is the UniVerse database that works with PICK or BASIC.

http://www.rocketsoftware.com/products/rocket-u2/technical-documentation/rocket-universe-v1125

I have been working with these technologies for over ten years.

Answer 14

Bill Zelenko isn't the a.k.a. "PICK" is similar to BASIC and Report Program Generator ( RPG ) twisted or meshed together... more like vBASIC or Visual BASIC...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic

Answer 15

I vaguely recall hearing MSX was where the Metal Gear franchise started. I thought it was a console (it seems it was way more).
I had a Famicom though, and I knew the cartridges had on-board hardware extensions.
I always thought that the primitive approach was a console thing, I never imagined actual desktop computers like this (silly, since the correct cartridge could've made it a limited desktop). My first PC was a 286 with a tiny hdd and miniscule amount of memory by current standards, but still the same "typical" computer. I never saw the older generation (probably because IT wasn't big in RSA back then, almost nobody had home PCs). So I accepted this imaginary line between consoles and "real" PCs until I was much older. Can't believe there were generation(s) of desktop machines like this.

Answer 16

@Edward,

Here is a repository with BASIC/PICK code:

https://github.com/zelenko/pick/blob/master/export.pick

Answer 17

@Martin: No OS? So like a kernel without a userland other than a Basic interpreter? How? Link? (This is fascinating)

Answer 18

Add the Apple II to the list of 8 bit that booted in basic. So instead of C> you got ].

Answer 19

@Bill Zelenko can you post a snippet of PICK code? Does it looks like basic from the 80's?

Answer 20

the most basic language is c, because all these programming languages are started from c language