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Something I've wanted to asked ask for a while: who is programming in Basic today? The language has evolved substantially from its early days and there are man

Something I've wanted to asked ask for a while: who is programming in Basic today? The language has evolved substantially from its early days and there are many dialects. But it's rare to hear someone admit they program in Basic (at least on this forum). Programmers can be quite judgemental about choice of programming language. Does anyone want to share their reason for using Basic? It is by choice or by necessity (e.g. maintaining a legacy codebase)? Are there modern incarnations of the language that you feel are overlooked? (For example, I recently came across Pure Basic, a cross-platform compiler that lets you build self-contained binaries for Windows, Mac and Linux).

nanomonkey 6y ago
As of April, you can now program for the Nintendo Switch in SmileBASIC 4 [https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/smilebasic-4-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/smilebasic-4-switch/]. Back in 2010 I was writing production code in VB6 on a Inventory management and ERP system that ended up being sold off when the original developer decided to retire. As far as I know that piece of software is still being used today and runs quite a number of restaurants, airline catering companies and amusement parks.
gramie 6y ago
There is also a free (except for iOS) version of BASIC (https://www.b4x.com/ https://www.b4x.com/) that compiles to executables that run on Android, iOS, Windows, OSX, Linux, etc. It's very much like Visual Basic, including a visual UI editor, and has a very strong community. The developer (one guy!) often answers questions in the forums.
sedatk 6y ago
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is still a thing. My brother is teaching Decision Support Systems using Excel/VBA and he says it's the most practical way to do it.
BasicBardo 6y ago
I do! My company runs a legacy Multivalue database (jBASE) which uses jBASIC as the native programming language. The dialect that we program in has a lot of the classic attributes of BASIC but it's also been modernized quite a bit. It's still a procedural language and there's a lot more GOTOs in the codebase than I'd like but it's got a native REST interface and runs on a modern OS. There's actually a good number of businesses that run Multivalue databases like this. They all use similar dialects of BASIC with various levels of enhancements. The databases are noSQL from before SQL was really a thing.
pjmlp 6y ago
People that work in life sciences. Might seem a surprise to many HNers, but there are people using Excel for their research, instead of R, Python, Julia,.... I guess it helps that plenty of data readers are Windows only and provide COM/DLL automation interfaces. So when their Excel macros + VBA outgrown themselves, they get IT to install them VB.NET and carry on. So that medicine one is taking might have had its reaction curve analysis done in VB.
kjs3 6y ago
You can still get a supported, paid version of BBC Basic for Windows at http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcwin/bbcwin.html http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcwin/bbcwin.html. A couple of years ago a shop I was at had a dev that used it to construct test frameworks for the apps he was working on. Said he'd been using it since the 80s and it worked for him. The dev leads said OK and the tests were apparently extremely well done. Got bought by IBM, so I don't know if they're still doing testing that way :-).
simonh 6y ago
My kids do their Computer Science course at school in VB.NET here in the UK. I understand it's also possible to do it in Python, but they don't offer that at their school.
foobarian 6y ago
I feel like a lot of the attraction of the early micro BASICs was: 1) Flip on power switch 2) Computer shows "READY" 0.5s later. With a modern Windows PC a 7 yro has to learn to use the mouse, to click, press icons, the concept of windows, etc. Which, she somehow picked up in about 1 month time frame and is now able to launch games and play PC Minecraft. But anyway...
32bitkid 6y ago
QB64: https://www.qb64.org/portal/ https://www.qb64.org/portal/ And Color Maximite 1/2: http://geoffg.net/maximite.html http://geoffg.net/maximite.html Are two interesting takes on modern BASIC

nanomonkey 6y ago

As of April, you can now program for the Nintendo Switch in SmileBASIC 4 [https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/smilebasic-4-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/smilebasic-4-switch/]. Back in 2010 I was writing production code in VB6 on a Inventory management and ERP system that ended up being sold off when the original developer decided to retire. As far as I know that piece of software is still being used today and runs quite a number of restaurants, airline catering companies and amusement parks.

gramie 6y ago

There is also a free (except for iOS) version of BASIC (https://www.b4x.com/ https://www.b4x.com/) that compiles to executables that run on Android, iOS, Windows, OSX, Linux, etc. It's very much like Visual Basic, including a visual UI editor, and has a very strong community. The developer (one guy!) often answers questions in the forums.

sedatk 6y ago

VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is still a thing. My brother is teaching Decision Support Systems using Excel/VBA and he says it's the most practical way to do it.

BasicBardo 6y ago

I do! My company runs a legacy Multivalue database (jBASE) which uses jBASIC as the native programming language. The dialect that we program in has a lot of the classic attributes of BASIC but it's also been modernized quite a bit. It's still a procedural language and there's a lot more GOTOs in the codebase than I'd like but it's got a native REST interface and runs on a modern OS. There's actually a good number of businesses that run Multivalue databases like this. They all use similar dialects of BASIC with various levels of enhancements. The databases are noSQL from before SQL was really a thing.

pjmlp 6y ago

People that work in life sciences. Might seem a surprise to many HNers, but there are people using Excel for their research, instead of R, Python, Julia,.... I guess it helps that plenty of data readers are Windows only and provide COM/DLL automation interfaces. So when their Excel macros + VBA outgrown themselves, they get IT to install them VB.NET and carry on. So that medicine one is taking might have had its reaction curve analysis done in VB.

kjs3 6y ago

You can still get a supported, paid version of BBC Basic for Windows at http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcwin/bbcwin.html http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcwin/bbcwin.html. A couple of years ago a shop I was at had a dev that used it to construct test frameworks for the apps he was working on. Said he'd been using it since the 80s and it worked for him. The dev leads said OK and the tests were apparently extremely well done. Got bought by IBM, so I don't know if they're still doing testing that way :-).

simonh 6y ago

My kids do their Computer Science course at school in VB.NET here in the UK. I understand it's also possible to do it in Python, but they don't offer that at their school.

foobarian 6y ago

I feel like a lot of the attraction of the early micro BASICs was: 1) Flip on power switch 2) Computer shows "READY" 0.5s later. With a modern Windows PC a 7 yro has to learn to use the mouse, to click, press icons, the concept of windows, etc. Which, she somehow picked up in about 1 month time frame and is now able to launch games and play PC Minecraft. But anyway...

32bitkid 6y ago

QB64: https://www.qb64.org/portal/ https://www.qb64.org/portal/ And Color Maximite 1/2: http://geoffg.net/maximite.html http://geoffg.net/maximite.html Are two interesting takes on modern BASIC