BASIC

BASIC (an acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is an archaic computer language originally designed for simplicity for home users with personal computers. In the early days of PCs, computers would boot into a BASIC terminal, and from there you would conduct your business. There were many flavors of BASIC, including IBM Basic, Atari BASIC, and Famicom Basic (though this form of BASIC was never available for the Nintendo outside of Japan).

Structure

Basic uses a simple coding structure that anyone can master. Each line is separated by a break and a number.

Hello World in Basic:

10 REM this is a BASIC comment. BASIC comments are valid until a line break
20 REM A basic BASIC "Hello World"
30 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
40 GO TO 30 REM you can also put a comment after a functioning line
RUN

HELLO WORLD
HELLO WORLD
HELLO WORLD
REM "Print" will repeat itself until it catches an interrupt

External Links

A forgotten episode of School House Rock entitled "Think Computer!", explaining BASIC to children. It is very outdated