I also started with BASIC. Easy to learn/read/write, compiled ultra-fast, ran fast, crashed less than C, and had p-code for portability. Great stuff for beginne

I also started with BASIC. Easy to learn/read/write, compiled ultra-fast, ran fast, crashed less than C, and had p-code for portability. Great stuff for beginner. Anyone wanting an open-source solution for that should check out FreeBASIC which was simple to setup and use last time I tried it: http://freebasic.net http://freebasic.net GAMBAS is another for Linux that reminds me of VB6 a bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambas Wikipedia also has a list of BASIC dialects which shows possibly full range of what was tried in BASIC variants on what platforms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BASIC_dialects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BASIC_dialects There's a number of proprietary, cross-platform BASIC's still being sold and updated that illustrate a demand for its advantages. Main one being it's close to pseudocode in readability. BASIC also got some attention for game development with dialects developed specifically for making that easier. Only one I can remember looking at was DarkBASIC. It's FOSS now under MIT license.