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Question: is there a small and simple terminal that runs basic and suitable for young children? I’m looking to avoid a general purpose device that can play mod

Question: is there a small and simple terminal that runs basic and suitable for young children? I’m looking to avoid a general purpose device that can play modern games and connect to the internet.

achr2 8y ago
QBasic on FreeDOS running in an emulator on a RaspberryPi?
- hakfoo 8y ago
  I think RiscOS includes a pretty robust BASIC, and then you avoid the emulation overhead. Qbasic is also a sort of weird situation-- modern in some ways, but sometimes feature and resource limited compared to other BASICs. It was a defeatured QuickBasic that they sort of expected users to graduate to the full product.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
  You sure you couldn't squeeze a few more layers of abstraction on there?
  - ohithereyou 8y ago
    QBasic on FreeDOS running in a Raspberry Pi emulator in a Docker container over VNC on Kubernets running on Amazon EKS in several availability zones for five nines of abstraction nostalgia goodness.
  - benj111 8y ago
    You could have freedos run on a virtual machine? And emulate the raspi in the cloud, but that would be being silly.
IcePic 8y ago
BASIC256 on a rpi?
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
There are a few projects using things like the Arduino to create a homebrew 80s micro style computer. Found this one relatively quickly: https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Basic-PC-With-VGA-Output/ https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Basic-PC-With-VGA-O...
M4v3R 8y ago
The 8-Bit Guy is building one, you might want to check out his video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayh0qebfD2g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayh0qebfD2g
brlewis 8y ago
Surely there's a server linux distro that ships without X11. Or you could uninstall X11 from another distro. Today's warty mainstream beginner language, JavaScript, is 100x better than BASIC, IMO.
cpswan 8y ago
RC2014 'is a simple 8 bit Z80 based modular computer originally built to run Microsoft BASIC' https://rc2014.co.uk/ https://rc2014.co.uk/ Though for keyboard and screen you still need a terminal (or terminal emulator, which can be a Raspberry Pi).
Retra 8y ago
Most graphing calculators match that description.
opwieurposiu 8y ago
Check out the pocket chip, you can use Basic on it but the real gem is writing for PICO-8. https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-C-H-I-P-Portable-Computer-Thing/dp/B07HHNWQW6 https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-C-H-I-P-Portable-Computer-Thin... https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
kej 8y ago
Raspberry Pi running IchigoJam BASIC? Or the IchigoJam board itself? https://ichigojam.github.io/RPi/ https://ichigojam.github.io/RPi/
UncleSlacky 8y ago
RISC OS Pico - a minimal BBC Basic environment for the Raspberry Pi: https://www.riscosopen.org/content/sales/risc-os-pico https://www.riscosopen.org/content/sales/risc-os-pico

Question: is there a small and simple terminal that runs basic and suitable for young children? I’m looking to avoid a general purpose device that can play modern games and connect to the internet.

achr2 8y ago

QBasic on FreeDOS running in an emulator on a RaspberryPi?

hakfoo 8y ago
I think RiscOS includes a pretty robust BASIC, and then you avoid the emulation overhead. Qbasic is also a sort of weird situation-- modern in some ways, but sometimes feature and resource limited compared to other BASICs. It was a defeatured QuickBasic that they sort of expected users to graduate to the full product.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
You sure you couldn't squeeze a few more layers of abstraction on there?
- ohithereyou 8y ago
  QBasic on FreeDOS running in a Raspberry Pi emulator in a Docker container over VNC on Kubernets running on Amazon EKS in several availability zones for five nines of abstraction nostalgia goodness.
- benj111 8y ago
  You could have freedos run on a virtual machine? And emulate the raspi in the cloud, but that would be being silly.

IcePic 8y ago

BASIC256 on a rpi?

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

There are a few projects using things like the Arduino to create a homebrew 80s micro style computer. Found this one relatively quickly: https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Basic-PC-With-VGA-Output/ https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Basic-PC-With-VGA-O...

M4v3R 8y ago

The 8-Bit Guy is building one, you might want to check out his video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayh0qebfD2g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayh0qebfD2g

brlewis 8y ago

Surely there's a server linux distro that ships without X11. Or you could uninstall X11 from another distro. Today's warty mainstream beginner language, JavaScript, is 100x better than BASIC, IMO.

cpswan 8y ago

RC2014 'is a simple 8 bit Z80 based modular computer originally built to run Microsoft BASIC' https://rc2014.co.uk/ https://rc2014.co.uk/ Though for keyboard and screen you still need a terminal (or terminal emulator, which can be a Raspberry Pi).

Retra 8y ago

Most graphing calculators match that description.

opwieurposiu 8y ago

Check out the pocket chip, you can use Basic on it but the real gem is writing for PICO-8. https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-C-H-I-P-Portable-Computer-Thing/dp/B07HHNWQW6 https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-C-H-I-P-Portable-Computer-Thin... https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

kej 8y ago

Raspberry Pi running IchigoJam BASIC? Or the IchigoJam board itself? https://ichigojam.github.io/RPi/ https://ichigojam.github.io/RPi/

UncleSlacky 8y ago

RISC OS Pico - a minimal BBC Basic environment for the Raspberry Pi: https://www.riscosopen.org/content/sales/risc-os-pico https://www.riscosopen.org/content/sales/risc-os-pico