List of BASIC dialects
This article gives an alphabetical list of BASIC dialects—a flat list of interpreted as well as compiled variants on the BASIC programming language. The dialects' platform(s) (that is, the computer models and operating systems) are given in parentheses along with any other significant information.
For a list sorted by platform, see the List of BASIC dialects by platform.
Dialects
A
- ABasiC (Amiga) — Relatively limited. Initially provided with Amigas by MetaComCo.
- ABC BASIC (ABC80/800) BASIC for Luxors ABC line of computers.
- ACE (Amiga) — A Compiler for Everyone — A freeware BASIC compiler that is AmigaBASIC compatible and contains extra features, some of which exploit the Amiga's hardware and operating system. [1] [2]
- Advanced BASIC: See 'BASICA'
- Altair BASIC (aka MITS 4K BASIC, MITS 8K BASIC, Altair Disk Extended BASIC) (MITS Altair 8800, S-100) — Microsoft's first product
- Altair Disk Extended BASIC: See 'Altair BASIC'
- Alvyn BASIC (multiplatform) — A free open source multiplatform BASIC interpreter that is fully compatible with Amiga AMOS Professional and is targeted at game development
- Amiga BASIC (Amiga) — Somewhat easier than ABasiC, see MS BASIC for Macintosh.
- AMOS BASIC (Amiga) — A version of BASIC for the Amiga designed for game programming. A descendant of STOS BASIC on the Atari ST. Later derivatives included AMOS Professional (aka AMOS Pro) and Easy AMOS.
- AMOS Professional & AMOS Pro: See 'AMOS BASIC'
- Apple BASIC (Apple I): see: Integer BASIC
- Apple Business BASIC (Apple III)
- Applesoft BASIC (Apple II family) — Based on the same Microsoft code that Commodore BASIC was based on. Standard on the Apple II Plus and Apple II Europlus.
- ASIC (DOS on the PC)
- Atari 2600 Basic Programming (Atari 2600 video game console)
- Atari BASIC (aka Shepardson BASIC) (Atari 8-bit family) — The standard cartridge-based interpreter for the Atari 400 and successors. On Later machines such as the Atari 800XL, this BASIC was built into the ROM.
- Atari Microsoft BASIC (Atari 8-bit family)
- AttoBasic, This is a ROM-resident interpreter that executes from on-chip RAM (Atmel AVR)
- Atom BASIC (Acorn Atom)
B
- B32 Business Basic (Data General Eclipse MV, Unix, MS-DOS)
- Bas (Unix) — An interpreter for the classic dialect of BASIC [3]
- BASCOM — BASIC compilers for the 8051 and AVR chips
- BASIC A+ (Atari 8-bit family) — An extended BASIC for the Atari 8-bit family, from Optimized Systems Software
- BASIC Advanced: See 'BASICA'
- BASIC XE (Atari 8-bit family) — An enhanced version of BASIC XL, from Optimized Systems Software [4]
- BASIC XL (Atari 8-bit family) — An improved BASIC for the Atari 8-bit family, from Optimized Systems Software [5]
- Bazic '86: See 'Northstar BASIC'
- BASIC-11 (DEC PDP-11, RSX-11)
- BASIC-E (aka submarine BASIC) (CP/M)
- BASIC Plus 2 (DEC PDP-11: RSTS/E, RSX-11)
- BASIC-PLUS (DEC PDP-11: RSTS/E)
- BASIC/UX -- HP BASIC for HP/UX, an implementation of Rocky Mountain BASIC
- BASIC/WS -- HP BASIC Workstation, an implementation of Rocky Mountain BASIC
- BASIC/Z (or ZBASIC) (CP/M, MDOS)
- BASIC09 (OS-9 and OS-9 68K on Motorola 6809 and 68K CPUs, respectively)
- BASICA (aka BASIC Advanced, Advanced BASIC) (DOS on the PC) — Available in ROM on IBM PCs. Later disk based versions for PC-DOS.
- BASICODE (KC85) [6]
- BasiEgaXorz (Sega Genesis) — BASIC for the Sega Genesis [7]
- BBC BASIC — Originally for the Acorn/BBC Micro, but has since been ported to RISC OS, Tiki 100, Cambridge Z88, Amstrad NC100, CP/M, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and many others [8]. A GPL clone of BBC BASIC named Brandy written in portable C is also available.
- BBx (Microsoft Windows, Linux, Unix) — Cross-platform application development language derived from Business Basic.
- Beta BASIC – A BASIC toolkit that extended Sinclair BASIC.
- BlitzBasic (Amiga, Windows) — Fast compiler meant for game programming. Windows version with DirectX support.
- BlitzMAX (Mac OS, Linux, Windows) — Fast and compact compiler meant for Game programming with OpenGL support.
- Blunt Axe Basic (aka BXBASM) (Win32, Linux) [9] [10]
- Business Basic — A name given collectively to the variants of BASIC which were specialised for business use on mini-computers in the 1970s.
- bwBASIC: See 'Bywater BASIC'
- BXBASM: See 'Blunt_Axe_Basic'
- Bywater BASIC (aka bwBASIC) — BASIC interpreter for MS-DOS and POSIX. Is a bit like GWBasic.
C
- Caché Basic — One of the two scripting languages in the Caché Database
- CBASIC (CP/M, MS-DOS) — Successor of BASIC-E.
- cbasPad Pro: See 'HotPaw Basic'
- CBM BASIC: See 'Commodore BASIC'
- Chinese BASIC: Several Chinese-translated BASIC languages developed in the early 1980s.
- Chipmunk Basic (Apple Macintosh, CLI ports for Win32, GNU/Linux) — copyrighted freeware
- CocoaBasic (Mac OS X) — An object oriented Basic Dialect for using the Cocoa Framework [11]
- Color BASIC (Tandy / Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer)
- Commodore BASIC (aka CBM BASIC) (Various computers in CBM's line of 8-bit computers) — Was integrated in the ROM of CBM's 8-bit computers. Built on an early version of 6502 Microsoft BASIC. There were several versions – the most well known was Commodore Basic V2.
- Compaq BASIC for OpenVMS VAX BASIC renamed
- CoolBasic (Windows) — A Finnish variant of BASIC suited for game programming with DirectX. [12] [13] [14]
D
- DarkBASIC & DarkBASIC Professional (Windows) — Efficient compiler for game programming.
- Dartmouth BASIC — the original version of BASIC. See also True BASIC.
- Data General Business Basic (Data General Nova and later DG minicomputers)
- Data/BASIC: See: 'Pick/BASIC'
- Databasic: See: 'Pick/BASIC'
- DEC BASIC Used to VAX BASIC; renamed after VMS became OpenVMS and Alpha was created
E
- Easy AMOS: See 'AMOS BASIC'
- Envelop (Windows) — Visual Basic 3 clone.
- ethosBASIC (Windows) — ethosBASIC is a new BASIC development system designed to create computer games [15].
- Extended Color BASIC (TRS-80 Color Computer and Dragon 32/64)
F
- FaST Basic (Atari ST)
- Famicom BASIC (Nintendo Entertainment System) — BASIC for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
- FBSL (Windows & Linux under WinE) — FREE Basic Script Language [16]
- FREE Basic Script Language: See 'FBSL'
- FreeBASIC (DOS, MS Windows and GNU/Linux) — An almost 100% QuickBASIC compatible Win32 Open source language (GPL)
- FutureBASIC (Mac OS)
G
- Galaksija BASIC (Galaksija) - firmware BASIC implementation for Galaksija home computer.
- Gambas (Linux / Unix)) — A rapid application development environment for BASIC under Linux KDE from Benoit Minisini. Similar approach as Visual Basic.
- GamesBasic - Free object-oriented BASIC variant meant for game programming.
- GBasic (DOS on the PC) — Interpreter with many graphics routines.
- GeoBASIC (Leica TPS 1000/1100 surveying stations)
- geoBASIC (Commodore 64) — BASIC for use with GEOS
- GFA BASIC (Atari ST, Amiga, MS-DOS, Windows) — Was originally conceived on the Atari ST where it became one of the most popular BASICs for that platform (it almost became a standard programming language for the Atari ST). Was later ported to the Amiga, MS-DOS and Windows.
- Gnome Basic (Linux/Unix) — a project to develop a Visual Basic compatible clone BASIC for Gnome. During the course of development, the project was discontinued, and VB.NET support for Mono was dropped.
- GW-BASIC (DOS on the PC) — BASICA compatible; independent of IBM ROM routines. Came with versions of MS-DOS before 5.0
H
- HBasic (Linux / Unix)) — Object-oriented open source BASIC IDE. HBasic based on Qt IDE and a BASIC Dialect. Similar approach as Visual Basic.
- HiSoft Basic (Atari ST, ZX Spectrum)
- High Tech BASIC -- Implementation of Rocky Mountain BASIC by TransEra
- HotBasic (Win32, Linux)
- HotPaw Basic (aka yBasic, nee cbasPad Pro) (PalmOS) — Interpreter with GUI and sound funtions. [17]
- HP BASIC -- The original implementation of Rocky Mountain BASIC
- HP Instrument BASIC -- Another name for HP's Rocky Mountain BASIC
- HP BASIC for OpenVMS (derived from DEC BASIC and VAX BASIC)
- HP Time-Sharing BASIC (HP 2100 line of minicomputers)
- HTBasic -- Implementation of Rocky Mountain BASIC by TransEra
I
- IBasic (Windows) — With Windows API and DirectX support.
- IBM Cassette BASIC (DOS on the PC) — Built in to the first IBM PCs. Ran independently of DOS and used audio cassettes as a storage medium.
- ICPL (Computervision CADDS-2/VLSI) — An interpreter tied in with an integrated circuit design database.
- Integer BASIC (Apple II family) — Steve Wozniak's own creation. Was originally known simply as "Apple BASIC". For the BASICs available at the time, it was extremely fast and memory-efficient. Only supported integers. Came as standard on the Apple I and original Apple II
- iziBasic [18] (PalmOS) — An easy-to-use BASIC compiler that runs on the Palm OS device and produces stand-alone applications. Includes terminal mode and support for Palm OS GUI.
J
K
- KBasic (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) — based on Qt. Object-oriented Visual Basic-like and Java-like Basic variant with IDE used for Cross-platform development. Comes in two editions — The free KBasic Personal and non-free KBasic Professional.
- KBasic Personal: See 'KBasic'
- KBasic Professional: See 'KBasic'
- Kool-Bee: See 'KoolB'
- KoolB (short for Kool-Bee) (Windows, Linux) — Open-source BASIC compiler. A minimal compiler build mainly for learning purposes. [19]
L
- Liberty BASIC (Windows) — a Bytecode-interpreter similar to Visual Basic.
- Locomotive BASIC (Amstrad CPC) — Built into the ROM of the Amstrad CPC.
- LotusScript (Lotus Notes)
- Luxor Basic (Luxor ABC80)
M
- MAI Basic Four Business Basic (misc. minicomputers)
- Mallard BASIC (Amstrad PCW, ZX Spectrum +3 under CP/M) — Similar to Locomotive BASIC.
- MBASIC (CP/M) — Further development of OBASIC, also from Microsoft. MBasic was one of the BASICs developed from Microsoft. Came with a line editor), that for example ran under CP/M.
- Microsoft BASIC (overview of Microsoft BASIC variants) (many microcomputer platforms)
- Microsoft BASICA: See 'BASICA'
- Microsoft GW-BASIC: See 'GW-BASIC'
- Microsoft Level III BASIC (Tandy / Radio Shack TRS-80)
- Microsoft Visual Basic: See 'Visual Basic'
- MITS 4K BASIC: See 'Altair BASIC'
- MITS 8K BASIC: See 'Altair BASIC'
- Mobile BASIC (Java enabled mobile phones)
- MOLE Basic (DOS on the PC) — Merty's Own Language Extension BASIC.
- Moonrock Basic Compiler (DOS on the PC) — Small compiler.
- MS BASIC for Macintosh (Mac OS)
- MSX BASIC (MSX)
N
- N88-BASIC (Old NEC PC8801/9801) — Japan's most popular BASIC based on Microsoft's one.
- NorthStar BASIC (Processor Technology, NorthStar Horizon, later adapted to x86 as Bazic '86)
- NS Basic (PalmOS) — IDE and Bytecode-interpreter.
O
- OBASIC (CP/M) — From Microsoft.
- Omikron Basic (Atari ST, Mac OS) — Was originally developed for the Atari ST. In Germany it was bundled with new Atari STs for a long time. Was later ported to Mac OS and was further developed for Mac OS X.
- OWBasic (Pocketviewer (CASIO pda)) — Fast compiler/interpreter system, Open Source [20]
P
- Parrot BASIC — An implementation of BASIC for the Parrot virtual machine. Version 1.0 is modeled after GW-BASIC. Version 2.0 is modeled after Microsoft's QuickBASIC version 4.5 [21]
- PBASIC — A BASIC designed for use with the BASIC Stamp microcontroller
- Phoenix Object Basic (Linux / Unix)) — A free BASIC that includes a GUI builder.
- PIC BASIC — BASIC designed for use with microcontrollers
- Pick/BASIC (aka Data/BASIC, Databasic) (Pick Operating System) — an extended basic language integrated in the Pick database and variations of it.
- PowerBasic (MSDOS, Win32) — Efficient commercial basic compiler for DOS and Windows (successor of Turbo BASIC) — With Compiler.
- Profan (Windows) — A user friendly interpreted language.
- ProvideX (Microsoft Windows, Linux, Unix) — Cross-platform application development language derived from Business Basic.
- PSX Chipmunk BASIC (Sony PlayStation) — BASIC for the Sony PlayStation.
- PureBasic (Microsoft Windows, Linux, AmigaOS and Mac OS (in development)) — Cross-platform application development language. Fast compiled basic with many functions.
Q
- QBASIC (DOS on the PC) — Came with versions of MS-DOS from 5.0 to 6.22.
- QuickBasic (DOS on the PC) — Extended QBasic variant (to be more precise, QBasic is a reduced QuickBasic) . Was the commercial version of Qbasic. Came with a compiler.
R
- RapidQ (Windows, Linux, Solaris/Sparc and HP/UX) — A free BASIC that borrowed from Visual Basic. Useful for graphical surfaces. Works to a large extent with QuickBasic instructions. (Cross-platform, free, no longer being developed). Semi-OO interpreter. Includes RAD IDE.
- REALbasic (Macintosh, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows) — Platform independent BASIC. Object-oriented Visual Basic-like Basic variant.
- Revelation BASIC (DOS on the PC)
- Rocky Mountain BASIC -- created by HP to control instruments through HP-IB
S
- SAM BASIC (SAM Coupé)
- ScriptBasic (Win32 and GNU/Linux) — a scripting language variant of BASIC. Released under the Lesser General Public License aka LGPL
- sdlBasic free multiplatform BASIC. Based on the core of wxBasic, but uses the SDL library.
- Sharp BASIC (Sharp pocket computers)
- Shepardson BASIC: 'See Atari BASIC'
- Sinclair BASIC (ZX80, ZX81/TS1000, ZX Spectrum)
- SmallBASIC (DOS, PalmOS, Windows, Linux etc.) — A small Open source GPL-ed BASIC interpreter.
- SmartBASIC (Coleco Adam)
- Spectacle BASIC (Microsoft Windows - can be recompiled for Mac OS X, Linux and AmigaOS) an open source, interpreted language.
- ST BASIC (Atari ST) — The BASIC that came with the Atari ST
- StarBasic: See 'StarOffice Basic'
- StarOffice Basic (aka StarBasic) (OpenOffice.org, StarOffice)
- STOS BASIC (Atari ST) — A version of BASIC for the Atari ST designed for game programming. Predecessor of AMOS BASIC on the Amiga.
- Submarine BASIC: See 'BASIC-E'
- SuperBasic (Sinclair QL)
T
- THEOS Multi-User Basic (THEOS operating system)
- TI BASIC (note: no hyphen) (Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
- TI Extended BASIC (Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
- TI-BASIC (note: hyphen) (Texas Instruments programmable calculators)
- Tiger-BASIC — High Speed Multitasking BASIC for microcontrollers of the BASIC-Tiger family.
- Tiny BASIC (any microcomputer, but mostly implemented on early S-100 machines) -- A minimalist version of BASIC whose source was smaller than this article, used on low-memory platforms.
- TRS-80 Level I BASIC (TRS-80) — based on TinyBASIC
- TRS-80 Level II BASIC (Tandy / Radio Shack TRS-80) — based on Microsoft BASIC
- True BASIC (MS-DOS, MS Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Unix) — A direct descendant of the original BASIC – Dartmouth BASIC. Marketed by the creators of BASIC. Strictly standards-compliant.
- Turbo Basic (DOS on the PC) — A commercial BASIC compiler for DOS from Borland. (successor of BASIC/Z) (see PowerBASIC)
- Turbo Basic XL (Atari 8-bit family) — A freeware BASIC interpreter and compiler for the Atari 8-bit family — based on ATARI BASIC. Even the 'slow' Turbo-BASIC interpreter was about four times as fast as the built in BASIC. Written by Frank Ostrowski — the person who would go on to develop GfA-BASIC. Came from Happy Computer.
- Tymshare SuperBasic (SDS 940)
U
- UBASIC (DOS on the PC) — Interpreter with many mathematical routines. Strong emphasis on number theory. Can work with many-digit numbers, complex numbers.
V
- VAX BASIC DEC's BASIC-Plus-2 ported to VAX/VMS
- VBA: See 'Visual Basic for Applications'
- VBS: See 'Visual Basic Script'
- VBScript: See 'Visual Basic Script'
- Vilnius BASIC (Elektronika BK-0010-01 and BK-0011M computers)
- Visual Basic (Windows) — Microsoft's object oriented Basic-Variant. A dialect with a rapid application development for BASIC.
- Visual Basic .NET (Windows) — implementation within the .NET-Framework from Microsoft.
- Visual Basic for Applications (aka VBA) (MS Office on MS Windows and Apple Macintosh)
- Visual Basic Script (aka VBS, VBScript) — A subset of Visual Basic used in ASP and in WSH as a general-purpose scripting language. VBScript is often used as a replacement for DOS batch files.
W
- Watcom Basic — A BASIC dialect from Watcom International Corporation
- WordBasic (versions of MS Word before MS Word 97)
- wxBasic is an open source GPL BASIC interpreter based on the platform independent wxWidgets toolkit library. For Linux, MacOS-X and Windows.
X
- XBasic (Windows, Linux) — Open Source-compiler with a GUI-designer
Y
- Yabasic (Linux, Windows and PlayStation 2) — Small interpreter. (GPL)
- yBasic: See 'HotPaw Basic'
Z
- ZBasic See 'BASIC/Z'. Also, a BASIC dialect for the ZX microcontroller family.
BASIC extensions
BASIC extensions (also known as BASIC toolkits) extend a particular basic.
(Platforms: APCW = Amstrad PCW; C64 = Commodore 64; C128 = Commodore 128; Spec = ZX Spectrum; Spec+3 = ZX Spectrum +3; VIC-20 = Commodore VIC-20)
- BASIC 8.0 (C128) – Third-party extension of the C128's Commodore BASIC 7.0
- Basic Lightning (C64) – The White Lightning development suite from Oasis Software included also a quite capable BASIC extension for the Commodore BASIC 2.0
- Beta BASIC (Spec) – A BASIC toolkit that extended Sinclair BASIC.
- Exbasic Level II (C64) – Extended BASIC. An improved BASIC for the C64, which was loaded from disk or cartridge.
- Graphics BASIC (C64) – Third-party extension of the C64's Commodore BASIC 2.0
- Laser Basic (C64) – Third-party extension of the C64's Commodore BASIC 2.0
- Lightning Extended BASIC (APCW; Spec+3 under CP/M) – Extended Mallard BASIC with sophisticated graphics functions
- Simons' BASIC (C64) – CBM-marketed improved BASIC for the C64, loaded from disk or cartridge
- Super Expander (VIC-20) – CBM's own cartridge based extension of the VIC-20's Commodore BASIC 2.0
- Super Expander 64 (C64) – Ditto, for the C64