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Back to BASIC: The History, Corruption, and Future of the Language

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Having become disappointed with PC BASIC and GW-BASIC, I first became aware of True BASIC 1.0 for the IBM PC in 1985, and bought this book as a companion to the compiler. Even though I had been programming in BASIC for some 15 years, I learned many things about the language that I had never heard before.

This book outlines the true story of the origins of the BASIC programming language, as told by its creators. Dartmouth BASIC started out as a compiled language at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1964. Later, it was ported to other computer systems with less memory and processing power, simplified, and interpreted versions appeared. Some of the ugliest versions were implemented on early personal computers, such as the Apple II and IBM PC. Unfortunately, it was in that state that the great majority of users became familiar with BASIC and unjustifiably contemptuous of it. The creators and others continued to develop the language outside the awareness of much of the public, which led to ANSI BASIC, a recognized standard for the language. Eventually, Kemeny and Kurtz founded their own company, True BASIC, for the express purpose of further developing and marketing what the language had become.