True Basic

TrueBasic is the modern, updated version of DartmouthBasic. It is a fully functioning, modern programming language, and I think should be used by those who are taking up programming on an informal level. Of course, you can also get Python, especially if you're running Linux.

http://www.truebasic.com/

I stumbled on a book called "Back to Basic", ISBN 0201134330 , which is now out of print, which tells the whole sordid story of "street basic", and how the whole thing was bastardized in about 1975.

Has anyone out there actually bought a copy of TrueBasic? What do you think of it? -- FrankRobinson

Online article about TrueBasic: CREATIVE COMPUTING VOL. 11, NO. 10 / OCTOBER 1985, http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n10/54_True_Basic_the_creators_.php

I've never bought a copy of TrueBasic, though I have rather extensive experience with it. It is simply the best implementation of BASIC ever written -- its graphics functions are as extensive as LogoLanguage and it retains the simplicity of use of its illustrious ancestors. TrueBasic makes an excellent first language, and is useful for quick programs that do not require the brute force of C++. -- LeoSinger?

TrueBasic is a compiled implementation [http://www.truebasic.com/faqs.asp].

I took a Fortran course in 1972 and have used TrueBASIC since Version 2 for DOS (c.1988). I think BASIC was never meant to be a language for developing software -- more of a super programmable calculator. That's how I use it. I also used it instead of pseudocode in a discrete mathematics textbook I wrote. It is as easy to follow as pseudocode but you can run it and experiment with it. Similarly, I like that I can go back to a program I wrote 10 years ago and understand it even if I have not written anything in BASIC in three years. C code is not exactly self-evident to the non-programmer. TrueBASIC includes matrix operations and crunches numbers very quickly and accurately. You can make stand-alone applicatons. They are not exactly compiled IMO -- more like a runtime file is bound into the EXE file. I seem to recall a minimum EXE size af about 160k compared to 5k EXEs I've written in Fortran or the TED text editor in 2k. The IDE is clunky in the versions I have used and I HATE that you can't cut and paste from the output window. Why would you calculate something if you did not want to use the answer? Anyway, this is probably moot because there has been very little development in recent years and the prices are outrageous when there are so many free versions out there. -- RWHayden

Much better than that False BASIC I tried last year :-)

CategoryLanguageImplementation