beginners all-purpose symbolic instruction code (BASIC)

BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is the most widespread, easily learnable higher programming language, with which almost all personal computers can work.

BASIC is also compilable, but in concept, unlike most high- level computer languages, it is one of the few interpreter languages. This means that every single instruction is converted into a series of assembler instructions one after the other, even if this is not useful. This makes processing very slow and is not suitable for larger programs.

BASIC has a myriad of dialects, mutually different sets of instructions, which sometimes makes portability (transferability) difficult. As BASIC dialects TrueBASIC, PowerBASIC or VisualBASIC are to be mentioned, likewise the Compilerdialekt QBasic of Microsoft.

BASIC was originally conceived in 1962 at Dartmouth College as a teaching and learning language, which explains its easy modifiability and extensibility.