A connection to a personal computer allows the programmer to download software to the BASIC Stamp, which is stored in the onboard non-volatile memory device: it remains programmed until it is erased or reprogrammed, even when the power is removed.

As a result of its free availability, knowledge of BASIC became relatively widespread ( for a computer language ) and BASIC was implemented by a number of manufacturers, becoming fairly popular on newer minicomputers like the DEC PDP series and the Data General Nova.

Among the most popular were the Commodore PET which had a strong following in the new computer programming classes due to its tough all-in-one construction and built-in support for Microsoft BASIC, and the Apple II which had a wide variety of educational software, mostly aimed at early education.

As the system became more popular one of the common additions was the Tiny BASIC programming language.

The £ 90 Ace was a flop in both the UK and US markets: the Forth language, although considered powerful, was not as popular or accessible as the already well-established BASIC language featured in competing microcomputers.

Kondo also wrote an instruction manual on how to program Japanese popular music into the Famicom using the peripheral Family BASIC.

In 1985, the magazine absorbed some of the content of sibling publication Enter ( which went out of print that same year ), including reader submissions of computer programs written in the BASIC computer language as well as reviews of popular computer programs.

On an interesting anecdote: Mike Konshak, a BASIC software developer and mechanical engineer contributed the popular ' DataFile ' database management program and many other utilities for the Commodore 64 to RUN.

In the mid and late 80s, it became very popular for the Atari ST homecomputer range ( since the ST BASIC shipped with them was more primitive ).

GFA BASIC ( as of version 2. 0, the most popular one ) was, by the standards of its time, a very modern programming language.

Many Atari ST users were introduced to GFA BASIC through magazine articles and tutorials in popular Atari magazines such as ST Format, and free copies were sometimes given away on these magazines ' cover discs.

It is made by Parallax, Inc. and has been popular with electronics hobbyists since the early 1990s because of its low threshold of learning and ease of use due to its simple to understand BASIC language and excellent documentation.

Several companies sold BASIC compilers, C compilers and Pascal compilers, and a subset of Ada, to mention but a few popular languages available for the machine.

The lack of graphics support was rectified by several BASIC toolkits, of which the most popular was LEB: Lightning Extended BASIC.

Constantin Sotiropoulos is most famous for being the co-creator ( with François Lionet ) of AMOS BASIC, a popular beginners programming language for the Commodore Amiga home computer, and STOS BASIC on the Atari ST.

* There was a well-documented bug in Applesoft BASIC that could actually crash the interpreter if ONERR GOTO was in effect and numerous program errors occurred.

GRASS was similar to BASIC in syntax, but added numerous instructions for specifying 2D object animation, including scaling, translation, rotation and color changes over time.

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 and personal computers of the 1970s and especially the 1980s, and extended along the way.

Originally on the Microdata implementation, and subsequently implemented on all Pick systems, a BASIC-like language called Data / BASIC with numerous syntax extensions for smart terminal interface and database operations was the primary programming language for applications.

Graphics BASIC was delivered on a single 5. 25 " floppy disk, containing the language itself and numerous, very simple demo programs showing off the new features of the language.

In the following years, as other dialects of BASIC appeared, Kemeny and Kurtz's original BASIC dialect became known as Dartmouth BASIC.

* Gary Beene's Information Center regarding BASIC, with timeline dates for DOS, Windows and BASIC dialects

Modern PLCs can be programmed in a variety of ways, from the relay-derived ladder logic to programming languages such as specially adapted dialects of BASIC and C. Another method is State Logic, a very high-level programming language designed to program PLCs based on state transition diagrams.

Ampersand is the string concatenation operator in many BASIC dialects, AppleScript, Lingo, HyperTalk, and FileMaker.

Unlike traditional BASIC, which used line numbers and had limited control structures and no support for ALGOL-like subroutines, modern BASIC dialects starting at this period were extended to make the language compatible with modern structured programming theory by discarding the line numbers and adding the control structures and subroutine definitions needed by structured programming.

This program allowed consumers to create some simple programs using its own unique programming language, which was superficially similar to dialects of BASIC, but differed in many important aspects.

* List of BASIC dialects

For example, in C, strings are a composite but built-in data type, whereas in modern dialects of BASIC and in JavaScript, they are assimilated to a primitive data type that is both basic and built-in.

In early programming languages, especially some dialects of BASIC in the 1980s home computers, an statement could only contain statements.

Version 6 saw the introduction of separately compilable procedures with parameters ; this is the version from which most later BASIC dialects descend.

Finally, many earlier consoles ( Astrocade, Famicom …) offered limited programming capabilities with BASIC dialects.

* len ( programming ), a function that gives the length of a text string in some dialects of BASIC programming language

While the ultimate origins of using the three-character string < tt > cls </ tt > as the command to clear the screen likely predate Microsoft's use, this command was present before its MS-DOS usage, in the embedded ROM BASIC dialects Microsoft wrote for early 8-bit microcomputers ( such as TRS-80 Color BASIC ), where it served the same purpose.

The MS-DOS dialects of BASIC written by Microsoft, BASICA and GW-BASIC, also have the < tt > cls </ tt > command as a BASIC keyword.

The command < tt > cls </ tt > has appeared as a clear screen command in many other BASIC dialects and command line interpreters, because of its familiarity through being included in MS-DOS.

The BASIC programming language has many dialects.

* List of BASIC dialects

Whereas Wozniak originally referred to his Integer BASIC as " Game BASIC ," having written it so he could write a Breakout clone for his new computer, few action games were written in Applesoft BASIC for several reasons:

No provision was added in the 128 kB Apple IIe and Apple IIc models ' BASIC interpreters for the new machines ' extra memory and double-resolution graphics, or for the Apple II's 16-color mode.

He had seen BASIC on minicomputers and felt it would be the perfect match for new machines like the MITS Altair 8800.

As new companies entered the field, additional versions were added that subtly changed the BASIC family.

Initially based on Dartmouth BASIC 7 — otherwise known as ANSI BASIC — TrueBASIC implemented a number of new features over GW-BASIC, and allowed the user a redefinable 16-color, 640 × 480 pixel backdrop for program editing.

True BASIC introduced new functions for graphics primitives like plot, plot area, flood, etc.

The same technique was also used to page between the new 16 kB editor ROM and the original 16 kB BASIC ROM at the bottom of the address space.

The new sound chip and MIDI out abilities were exposed to the BASIC programming language with the command PLAY and a new command SPECTRUM was added to switch the machine into 48K mode, keeping the current BASIC program intact ( although there is no way to switch back to 128K mode ).

The new commands took the place of two existing user-defined-character spaces causing compatibility problems with some BASIC programs.

The new keyboard did not include the BASIC keyword markings that were found on earlier Spectrums, except for the keywords LOAD, CODE and RUN which were useful for loading software.

He had seen BASIC on minicomputers and felt it would be the perfect match for new machines like the MITS Altair 8800, which had been released in January 1975.

DR, which had the dominant OS system of the day, was uneasy about the agreement with IBM and refused, Microsoft seized this opportunity to supply the OS in addition to other software ( e. g. BASIC ) for the new IBM PC.

Atari did what many of the other home computer companies did: they purchased the source code to the MOS 6502 version of Microsoft 8K BASIC, intending to port it to run on their new machines.

Shepardson had written a number of programs for the Apple II family, which used the same 6502 processor, and were in the middle of finishing a new BASIC for the Cromemco S-100 bus machines ( Cromemco 32K Structured BASIC ).

In particular, the new BASIC dealt with character strings more like Data General's BASIC than Microsoft's, which used strings similar to those from DEC BASIC.