What is BASIC?

BASIC stands for Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It is an interpreted programming language designed to include instruction calls which are as close to human language as possible.

Advanced programming languages like Assembler or C can be extraordinarily confusing for people who are unfamiliar with computers to begin with. Designing and writing a computer program is difficult enough without the obstacle of having no idea what the instructions mean.

BASIC includes very simple instructions like "PRINT" and "REM" which print output on the screen or include a "remark" or notes for the programmer which are ignored by the interpreter. BASIC abstracts many of the conventions of standard languages like "standard output" to provide an easy platform for experimentation.

Like many other interpreted languages, BASIC is quite slow and is very rarely used except as an instructional tool for very early beginning programmers. There are languages like Visual Basic which include more advanced features like independent functions and some object-oriented capabilities.