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Microsoft BASIC was the foundation product of the Microsoft
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
 company. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC
Altair BASIC

Altair BASIC was an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that ran on the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems Altair 8800 and subsequent S-100 bus computers....
, which was the first BASIC (and indeed the first high level programming language) available for the MITS Altair 8800
Altair 8800

The Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080 central processing unit and sold as a mail-order kit through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines....
 hobbyist microcomputer
Microcomputer

A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space when compared to mainframe computer and minicomputers....
.

The Altair BASIC interpreter was developed by Microsoft founders Paul Allen
Paul Allen

Paul Gardner Allen is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Allen regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world....
 and Bill Gates
Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an United States business magnate, philanthropist, author, the List of the 100 wealthiest people , and chairman of the board of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen....
 with help from Monte Davidoff
Monte Davidoff

Monte Davidoff is an United States computer programmer. He graduated from Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin in 1974. He went on to Harvard University, where he majored in applied mathematics, the department at Harvard that, at the time, included computer science....
, using a self made Intel 8080
Intel 8080

The Intel 8080 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. The 8-bit microprocessor was released in April 1974 running at 2 megahertz , and is generally considered to be the first truly usable microprocessor....
 software simulator running on a PDP-10 minicomputer
Minicomputer

A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems ....
. The dialect of BASIC was similar to Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering United States company in the computer industry. It is often referred to within the computing industry as DEC ....
 interpreters, especially in string operations, which varied between BASIC implementations.






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Microsoft BASIC was the foundation product of the Microsoft
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
 company. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC
Altair BASIC

Altair BASIC was an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that ran on the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems Altair 8800 and subsequent S-100 bus computers....
, which was the first BASIC (and indeed the first high level programming language) available for the MITS Altair 8800
Altair 8800

The Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080 central processing unit and sold as a mail-order kit through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines....
 hobbyist microcomputer
Microcomputer

A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space when compared to mainframe computer and minicomputers....
.

The Altair BASIC interpreter was developed by Microsoft founders Paul Allen
Paul Allen

Paul Gardner Allen is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Allen regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world....
 and Bill Gates
Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an United States business magnate, philanthropist, author, the List of the 100 wealthiest people , and chairman of the board of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen....
 with help from Monte Davidoff
Monte Davidoff

Monte Davidoff is an United States computer programmer. He graduated from Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin in 1974. He went on to Harvard University, where he majored in applied mathematics, the department at Harvard that, at the time, included computer science....
, using a self made Intel 8080
Intel 8080

The Intel 8080 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. The 8-bit microprocessor was released in April 1974 running at 2 megahertz , and is generally considered to be the first truly usable microprocessor....
 software simulator running on a PDP-10 minicomputer
Minicomputer

A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems ....
. The dialect of BASIC was similar to Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering United States company in the computer industry. It is often referred to within the computing industry as DEC ....
 interpreters, especially in string operations, which varied between BASIC implementations. BASIC used dynamically allocated strings which stored their size, a feature not common in C or C++ until the Standard Template Library
Standard Template Library

The Standard Template Library is a Library partially included in the C++ C++ standard library. It provides Container s, iterators, algorithms, and Function objects....
 of the 1990s. Many of these string operations remain today in the .NET Framework
.NET Framework

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework....
. Early BASIC only supported single letter and digit names, but Microsoft BASIC supported long variable names. The runtime symbol table, however, used a linear search, so that a program which used many distinct variables would run much slower than a program which used a single array for all its variables.

It was delivered on paper tape
Punched tape

Punched tape or paper tape is a largely obsolete form of data storage, consisting of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched to store data....
 and in its original version took 4 KB
Kilobyte

Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
 of memory. The extended 8 KB version was then generalized into BASIC-80 (8080/85, Z80
Zilog Z80

The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes....
), and ported into BASIC-68 (6800
Motorola 6800

The 6800 is an 8-bit microprocessor produced by Motorola and released shortly after the Intel 8080 in late 1974. It had 78 instructions, including the famous, undocumented Halt and Catch Fire bus test instruction....
), BASIC-69 (6809
Motorola 6809

The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit microprocessor central processing unit from Motorola, introduced circa 1977-78. It was a major advance over both its predecessor, the Motorola 6800, and the related, MOS Technology 6502....
), and MOS Technology 6502
MOS Technology 6502

The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch for MOS Technology in 1975. When it was introduced, it was the least expensive full-featured central processing unit on the market by a considerable margin, costing less than one-sixth the price of competing designs from larger companies such...
-BASIC (unfortunately spilling over to 9 KB
KB

The abbreviation KB or kb can refer to:*Kilobit , a unit of information used, for example, to quantify computer memory or storage capacity...
, in an era when 8 KB ROM chips were standard), as well as the 16-bit BASIC-86 (8086/88
Intel 8086

The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel and introduced on the market in 1978, which gave rise to the x86 architecture. Intel 8088, released in 1979, was essentially the same chip, but with an external 8-bit bus , and is notable as the processor used in the original IBM PC....
). It was ideal for ROM
Read-only memory

Read-only memory is a class of computer storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware ....
-based computers since it did not require an editor (each line requires a number), nor a disk drive to store object code or linked executable. It was less sophisticated than industrial desktop computers such as the HP 9830
HP 9830

The HP 9800 was a family of what were initially called programmable calculators and later desktop computers made by Hewlett-Packard which replaced their first HP 9100 calculator....
 which had dedicated keys to load, store, and keys for editing within a line and debugging, but personal computer pricing, in contrast, started at $1,565, not $7,000.

After the initial success of Altair BASIC, Microsoft BASIC became the basis for a lucrative software licensing business, being ported to the majority of the numerous home
Home computer

A home computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles....
 and personal computer
Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose original sales price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator....
s of the 1970s and especially the 1980s, and extended along the way. Contrary to the original Altair BASIC, most home computer BASICs were resident in ROM
Read-only memory

Read-only memory is a class of computer storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware ....
, and thus were available on the machines at power-on in the form of the characteristic "READY."-prompt. Hence, Microsoft's and other variants of BASIC constituted a significant and visible part of many home computers' rudimentary operating system
Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
s.

Microsoft BASIC (BASICA.EXE
Microsoft BASICA

Microsoft BASICA is a simple disk-based BASIC programming language interpreter written by Microsoft for PC-DOS. BASICA allows use of the Read-only memory-resident BASIC included with early models of IBM's PC while DOS is loaded and adds functionality such as file access and storage of programs on disk....
, GWBASIC.EXE
GW-BASIC

GW-BASIC was a dialect of BASIC programming language developed by Microsoft from BASICA, originally for Compaq. It is compatible with Microsoft/IBM Microsoft BASICA, but was disk based and did not require the Read-only memory BASIC....
, QBASIC.EXE
QBasic

QBasic is an integrated development environment and Interpreted language for a variant of the BASIC programming language which is based on QuickBasic....
) is no longer found on distributions of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ....
 or DOS
DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is a shorthand term for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me....
, however, it can be downloaded from various internet sites, and archives of DOS versions or old DOS disks which will still run on Pentium
Pentium

Introduced on March 22, 1993, the original Pentium was the first superscalar x86 architecture microprocessor. Its fifth-generation x86 microarchitecture was a direct extension of the 80486 architecture with dual integer pipeline s, a faster FPU unit, wider data bus, and features for further reduced address calculation latency....
 class Windows XP
Windows XP

Windows XP is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptop, and media centers....
 machines. The latest version of BASIC is Visual Basic .NET
Visual Basic .NET

Visual Basic , formerly called Visual Basic .NET , is an object-oriented programming computer language that can be viewed as an evolution of Microsoft Visual Basic implemented on the .NET Framework....
 which incorporates most of the features of C++
C++

C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level programming language and low-level programming language language features....
 and C# and can be used to develop web forms, windows forms, console application
Console application

A console application is a computer program designed to be used via a text-only computer interface, such as a text terminal, the command line interface of some Operating system or the text-based interface included with some Graphical user interface operating systems, such as the Win32 console in Microsoft Windows....
s and server-based applications. Most .NET code samples are presented in VB.NET as well as C#, and VB.NET continues to be favored by former Visual Basic programmers.

Variants and derivatives of Microsoft BASIC

  • Altair BASIC
    Altair BASIC

    Altair BASIC was an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that ran on the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems Altair 8800 and subsequent S-100 bus computers....
     (MITS Altair and other S-100 computers)
  • Amiga BASIC
    AmigaBASIC

    AmigaBASIC was an Interpreter BASIC programming language implementation for the Amiga, designed and written by Microsoft. AmigaBASIC shipped with AmigaOS versions 1.1 to 1.3....
     (Commodore Amiga family)
  • Applesoft BASIC
    Applesoft BASIC

    Applesoft BASIC was a dialect of BASIC programming language supplied on the Apple II family computer, superseding Integer BASIC. Applesoft BASIC was supplied by Microsoft and its name is derived from the names of both Apple and Microsoft....
     (Apple II family)
  • Atari Microsoft BASIC
    Atari Microsoft BASIC

    The Atari Microsoft BASIC and Atari Microsoft BASIC II variants of the BASIC programming language were Cartridge or floppy disk packaged versions of the Microsoft BASIC dialect Porting to the Atari 8-bit family machines....
     I and II (Atari 8-bit family)
  • BASICA ("BASIC Advanced") (PC-DOS, on IBM PC)
  • Color BASIC
    Color BASIC

    Color BASIC is the implementation of Microsoft BASIC that is included in the Read-only memory of the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computers manufactured between 1980 and 1991....
     (TRS-80 Color Computer)
  • Commodore BASIC
    Commodore BASIC

    Commodore BASIC, also known as PET BASIC, is the dialect of the BASIC programming language used in Commodore International's 8-bit home computer line, stretching from the Commodore PET of 1977 to the Commodore 128 of 1985....
     (Commodore 8-bit family, incl C64)
  • Extended Color BASIC (TRS-80 Color Computer and Dragon 32/64
    Dragon 32/64

    The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer , and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., in Port Talbot, Wales....
    )
  • IBM Cassette BASIC
    IBM Cassette BASIC

    IBM Cassette BASIC was a version of the Microsoft BASIC programming language licensed by IBM for the IBM PC. It was included in the BIOS Read-only memory of the original IBM PC....
     (Original IBM PC, built into ROM)
  • Galaksija BASIC
    Galaksija BASIC

    Galaksija BASIC was the BASIC programming language interpreter of the Galaksija build-it-yourself home computer from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
     (Galaksija home computer)
  • GW-BASIC (BASICA for MS-DOS, on PC compatibles)
  • Microsoft Level III BASIC (Tandy/Radio-Shack TRS-80)
  • MBASIC
    MBASIC

    MBASIC is the Microsoft BASIC implementation of BASIC for the CP/M operating system. MBASIC is a descendant of the original Altair BASIC interpreters that were among Microsoft's first products....
     (CP/M, on 8080/85 and Z80 based computers)
  • MS BASIC for Macintosh (Mac OS on Apple Macintosh)
  • MSX BASIC
    MSX BASIC

    MSX BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language. It is an extended version of Microsoft Standard BASIC Version 4.5, and includes support for graphic, music, and various peripherals attached to MSX Personal Computers....
     (MSX standard home computers)
  • N88-BASIC (NEC PC8801/9801)
  • N82-BASIC (NEC PC8201/8201A)
  • QBasic
    QBasic

    QBasic is an integrated development environment and Interpreted language for a variant of the BASIC programming language which is based on QuickBasic....
     (PC-DOS/MS-DOS on IBM PC and compatibles)
  • QuickBASIC (PC-DOS/MS-DOS on IBM PC and compatibles))
  • TRS-80 Level II BASIC
    TRS-80

    TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The line won popularity with hobbyists, home users, and small-businesses....
     (Tandy/Radio-Shack TRS-80
    TRS-80

    TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The line won popularity with hobbyists, home users, and small-businesses....
    )
  • Visual Basic
    Visual Basic

    'Visual Basic' is the third-generation programming language event-driven programming and integrated integrated development environment from Microsoft for its Component Object Model programming model....
     (PC-DOS/MS-DOS/MS Windows on IBM PC and compatibles)
  • WordBasic (pre-VBA
    Visual Basic for Applications

    Visual Basic for Applications is an implementation of Microsoft Event-driven programming programming language Visual Basic, and associated integrated development environment , which is built into most Microsoft Office applications....
    ) (MS Windows)
  • HP2640 HP2647 Programmable Terminal with AGL graphics extensions
  • FreeBASIC
    FreeBASIC

    FreeBASIC is a free software/open source , 32-bit BASIC compiler for Microsoft Windows, protected-mode DOS , Linux, and Xbox.FreeBASIC allows a high level of support for Computer programs written for QBasic, by using the "QB" dialect....
     - a free clone of the QuickBasic system.


See also

  • Open Letter to Hobbyists
    Open Letter to Hobbyists

    The Open Letter to Hobbyists was an open letter written by Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, to early personal computer hobbyists, in which Gates expresses dismay at the rampant copyright infringement taking place in the hobbyist community, particularly with regard to his company's software....


External links

  • – At the Old Software Information website