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Basic is still alive and well, providing a simple programming environment for beginners. It has returned to being a hobbyist scene, just like in the 80s. Basi

Basic is still alive and well, providing a simple programming environment for beginners. It has returned to being a hobbyist scene, just like in the 80s. Basic compilers are written by hobbyists for hobbyists. For native applications my favourite is PureBasic: http://www.purebasic.com/ http://www.purebasic.com/ It's a nice variant that compiles to a tiny, dependency free executables for Windows, Linux and OSX. It also provides a nice gateway to the underlying assembler. http://www.purebasic.com/documentation/reference/inlinedasm.html http://www.purebasic.com/documentation/reference/inlinedasm.... It also has an online version called Spider Basic that compiles to JavaScript: http://www.spiderbasic.com/ http://www.spiderbasic.com/

bitJericho 11y ago
Monkey X is by far the best BASIC compiler available to date. Purebasic is still good for GUI stuff, but it's not OOP like Monkey X. And Monkey X can support native GUIs if a library or wrapper were created (and may already exist).
- jarcane 11y ago
  Hmm. Maybe I should take another look at Purebasic then. "Not OOP" is a selling point for me, and rare as hen's teeth where GUI software is concerned.
  - kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
    > rare as hen's teeth where GUI software is concerned. You can still write native Win32 and Xlib apps in C not to mention all of the languages where OOP is an optional bolt-on.
antimagic 11y ago
It's not about BASIC though - it really is about the fact that computers literally booted into a REPL. That REPL being a BASIC REPL was probably something that set people back - I remember having a really hard time grokking how the computer knew in what order Pascal programmes had to be executed.
empressplay 11y ago
For an Applesoft BASIC interpreter, check out http://discorunner.com http://discorunner.com It comes with close to a thousand BASIC listings. The pixels are rendered in OpenGL 3D and you can play original games in a 3D perspective.

bitJericho 11y ago

Monkey X is by far the best BASIC compiler available to date. Purebasic is still good for GUI stuff, but it's not OOP like Monkey X. And Monkey X can support native GUIs if a library or wrapper were created (and may already exist).

jarcane 11y ago
Hmm. Maybe I should take another look at Purebasic then. "Not OOP" is a selling point for me, and rare as hen's teeth where GUI software is concerned.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
  > rare as hen's teeth where GUI software is concerned. You can still write native Win32 and Xlib apps in C not to mention all of the languages where OOP is an optional bolt-on.

antimagic 11y ago

It's not about BASIC though - it really is about the fact that computers literally booted into a REPL. That REPL being a BASIC REPL was probably something that set people back - I remember having a really hard time grokking how the computer knew in what order Pascal programmes had to be executed.

empressplay 11y ago

For an Applesoft BASIC interpreter, check out http://discorunner.com http://discorunner.com It comes with close to a thousand BASIC listings. The pixels are rendered in OpenGL 3D and you can play original games in a 3D perspective.