The new Chipmunk and HotPaw Basic page is   Here.

BASIC Programming Language Resources, information about
Chipmunk Basic for Mac OS,   Chipmunk Basic for Linux & Windows,
and HotPaw Basic for iPhone/iOS
by Ronald H. Nicholson, Jr.

BASIC (an acronym for "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code") is the name of a family of related high-level programming languages, developed circa 1963 at Dartmouth College, to provide an accessible and easy-to-learn environment for non-science students to understand and use computers. In the early 1980's, the Basic programming language was built-in to the majority of personal computers sold.

Chipmunk Basic

Chipmunk Basic for Mac OS

The new Chipmunk and HotPaw Basic page is   Here.

Chipmunk Basic is copyrighted freeware.

• Download the current version of Chipmunk Basic   Here.
  • Chipmunk Basic Basic Language Manual and README file (which includes a Quick Reference to Mac OS and other new functions)
    (Please see below for much more documentation.)

• Please join the Chipmunk Basic Discussion Forum in Yahoo Tech Groups to ask questions, share information, or even contribute your own Chipmunk Basic programs.

• If you would like to support the current and ongoing development of Chipmunk Basic, please use this PayPal contribution link:
  
  Note that this is completely voluntary and optional: Chipmunk Basic continues to be free for all personal and educational uses. Thank you for your support.

  Disclaimer: All versions of Chipmunk Basic are distributed in the hope that they might be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND; not even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS for ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Chipmunk Basic Documentation

• Chipmunk Basic Readme, FAQ & Quick Reference . . and . . Language Manual
  NOTE: Only the Quick Reference contains information about the Mac specific graphics, sound and user interface features.
• Chipmunk Basic Language Manual - BASIC Language Reference man page, and a linux/unix (man/nroff formatted basic man page)
• HTML Reference Manual for Macintosh version of Chipmunk Basic (1997 vintage, and frames version), contributed by Stephen Wise.
  
• And a framed cross-referenced HTML version of Chipmunk Basic documentation, contributed by Jim DeVona.

• A Tutorial on programming in Chipmunk Basic :
  Tutorial: Chapter 1 , Chapter 2 , Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. - (Contributed by Thomas L. Ferrell.)

• Mr. Whitmore's BASIC Programming Page from the Norris Middle School in Bakersfield, California (includes tutorial material, worksheets and class assignments)

• Contributed Note on GIF animation (using Chipmunk Basic on a Mac) - by Mark Manning
• Contributed documentation on Developing BCMD's (plug-in code resources for 68K Chipmunk Basic) - by Doug McNutt
• Old Notes on OOP (object oriented programming) for v3.3.8
• Chipmunk Basic was featured in the Programming Paradigms column of the December 1995 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal.
• MacUpdate page on Chipmunk Basic
• Chipmunk Basic Home Page (You are here.)

  Examples:

• Classic Basic Programs, modified for Chipmunk Basic
• Some Sample Chipmunk Basic Programs
• Some Digital Signal Processing and FFT example code for Chipmunk Basic

Chipmunk Basic for older Macs

• Chipmunk Basic for Mac OS 9 Classic version 3.6.3(b7) (2007Apr, 370k .sit.hqx archive)   ; or old version 3.5.7 for Mac System 7 ( May-2000 binhex stuffit archive ) ; or an even older version 3.5.6 (for older 68k System 6 Macs. Aug-1998). You can also download Chipmunk Basic 3.5.6 from the Info-Mac HyperArchive; but you might also need a 1997/1999 vintage version of Stuffit Lite, also available on Info-Mac , to expand this older .sit.hqx file.

Some ports of Chipmunk Basic for other systems

Chipmunk Basic for MS Windows

• Download Chipmunk Basic for MS Windows2000/XP latest beta version 3.6.5(b6)
  (207k .zip archive, containing a command-line basic utility and a chipmunkbasic applicaiton with some limited graphics support, 2011-Jan update).
  

Chipmunk Basic for Linux

• Download Chipmunk Basic for Linux/x86 version 3.6.5(b5)
  (124k .zip file, x86/ia32 executables + man page, no source, command-line-only port, some limited X11 graphics, includes support for OOP, matrix ops, fft's, file i/o, sdbm databases, getenv, sockets, pipes, fork, etc. Has even been used for web cgi. )
  older linux/x86 version 3.6.4b8

• linux man page for basic   ( text format )   ( unix man/nroff formatted for /usr/local/man/man1/ )

HotPaw Basic for iPhone/iOS and for obsolete PalmOS handhelds

• Download HotPaw Basic for iPhone/iOS from Apple's iTunes App store.
  Run Old-Fashioned Basic programs on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
  HotPaw Basic for iPhone/iOS Documentation is still under development.

• See the HotPaw Web Page for information on HotPaw Basic (formerly cbasPad Pro) for PalmOS systems
• more PalmPilot info is on Ron's General PalmOS Information Web Page

BASIC Programming Language Resources

General Information about the Basic Programming Language

• Wikipedia article on BASIC
• Wikipedia article on Tiny-BASIC
• The DMOZ Open Directory index on BASIC
• CBEL BASIC Programming Language directory - Open Directory Project
• The Yahoo Basic Programming Language Index

• Programming Language History (includes info on the original 6 versions of Dartmouth Basic)

  Historical Basic Documentation and Manuals

• A scanned pdf of the original 1964 Dartmouth Basic manual
• A scanned TIFF image of a PDP-8 OS/8 BASIC Language Reference Manual (circa 1969 ?)
• Online DEC BASIC manual , a DEC SYSTEM-10 BASIC introduction
• Online HP Business BASIC/XL Reference Manual
• Some information on Wang BASIC
• ITTY BITTY COMPUTERS Tiny Basic Users Manual - Tom Pittman's 6502 version, 1976 vintage
• MCS-51 Tiny Basic Manual(dead link) by John Wharton
• Intel MCS Basic-52 Manual
• Microsoft BASIC Users Manual for the Microtan 10K version
• Scans of the Altair BASIC Users Manual (circa 1978) , also here (1975)
• WikiBook on Basic Programming

  Basic Programming Language Standards

• EMCA Standards archive - See ECMA-55 Minimal BASIC, 1st edition January 1978, and ECMA-116 BASIC, 1st edition June 1986
• ANSI (American National Standards Institute - the organization from which to order the ANSI Standard for Full BASIC (ANSI INCITS 113-1987), the obsolete ANSI Standard for Minimal BASIC (X3.60-1978), or the obsolete ISO Standard - Data Processing - Programming languages - Minimal BASIC (ISO 6373-1984 (E))
  The obsolete Minimal BASIC standard is actually a much better description of industry standard practices (syntax and symantics) around the time of the standard.

  Other

• MicroSoft(tm) Basic Versions History
• The BASIC Archives Home Page
• List of over 150 versions of BASIC

• Edsger Dijkstra's comments on exposure to programming in Basic and other languages
  In 1975, Dijkstra wrote (perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek) :
  "It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."

Basic Programs

• Classic Basic Games (generic, including the Creative Computing collection samiam @ moorecad #&046 com) (older link)
• A large collection of Classic Basic programs including BASIC Computer Games by David Ahl.

Versions of Basic with Source Code for their implementation

Basic Interpreters and Compilers which have full Source Code available for their implementations:

• Yabasic 2.7 - (Basic interpreter written using flex, bison & C, ports for unix/linux & Win98/NT) (Open Source under Artistic License). Written/Maintained by: Marc-Oliver Ihm
• The SmallBASIC Interpreter - PalmOS and Linux (C source, GPL'd) by Nicholas Christopoulos
• Basic 256 (formerly KidBasic), for Windows and Linux (C++, LEX, YACC, source, uses Qt, GPL'd)
• The The Brandy Basic V Interpreter (C source for Acorn RISC OS, BSD, Mac OS X; GPL'd) by dave_daniels @argonet.co.uk
• ScriptBasic or (scripting Basic, C source, LGPL'd)
• wxBasic - a Basic interpreter for MSWindows and Lunix (LGPL'd source code)
• Blassic - a classic Basic interpreter (linux and MSWindows ports. GPL'd source)
• MiniBasic - ANSI C source (very liberal license) There's also a book on this interpreter by Malcolm Mclean.
• fbasic.c - simple Basic interpreter (C source code ,Copyrighted 2001 by Fridtjof Weigel)
• Bas 1.7 - a Basic interpreter for unix (by Michael Haardt, GPL'd source code)
• BDB-BASIC - Basic interpreter based on Berkeley DB database software and the DG MICOS BASIC dialect
• X11-Basic - a Basic interpreter with full X graphic capability supporting GFA-Basic ATARI-ST syntax (GPL'd source)
• Lemick - Basic tokenizing+JIT compiler with OOP capability (GPL'd source)
• Bywater BASIC 2.20 (patch level 2) - ANSI C source for a Basic interpreter,
  (plus patch level 01 & 02 updates to fix memory leaks, compressed tar file, GNU public license source code).
  This version maintained by: Jon Volkoff. - Original Author: Ted Campbell. There might be more current version of bwbasic on SourceForge
• dds.c - Worlds smallest Basic interpreter. C source. Obfuscated ( 1990 IOCCC winner). Only 25 lines long! Written by: Diomidis Spinellis (scripting Basic, C source, GPL'd)
• unmbasic is a Basic environment from the University of New Mexico. Matrix math extensions. Includes a yacc grammer. Requires both C and either a Fortran compiler or f2c to build. (compressed tar file) (May have formerly been called "Vax-Basic". Documentation?) Apparently written by Gary Klimowicz, circa 1990.
• MOLE Basic (extendable language, flex/yacc/C source)
• A MS Level II Basic compatible interpreter - (GPL'd c++ source code for Win32 systems)
• basic - A small Basic interpreter written in C as a student project, from mod.sources archives Volume 2 Issue 23 (compressed tar file of shar archive) Author: David Herron, 1985
• basic - A Basic interpreter written in C, (perhaps formerly Rabbit Basic ?) from comp.sources.unix archives volume07 (compressed tar file) Author: Phil Cockcroft, 1986 (note: I have never gotten this one to compile - rhn)
• basic.p & basic.c - (compressed unix shar file, P.D.) The original Chipmunk Basic interpreter, originally written in Pascal, and later converted to C using p2c. Part of the p2c source code archive posted to comp.sources.unix in 32 parts in March, 1990. Author: Dave Gillespie, Circa 1986
• base/4 - the public business basic (C source, German documentation, free personal source license?)
• stbasic09 A Structured Basic interpreter written in Pascal and C and including SRGP graphics, by Wilfried Waetzig (waetzig@hrz.uni-kassel.de), GPL, (based on original Chipmunk Basic 1.0 by Dave Gillespie)
• Free Basic Compiler and Interpreters - Developer City list

• PC Basic - Portable emulator for GW-Basic written in Python - source -
  

  Compilers

• FreeBASIC - an x86 Basic compiler (linux, win32, GPL, LGPL)
• qb2c - a BASIC to C translator (Freeware with C source & also a Commercial version), (old 1998 qb2c copy) - Author: Mario Stipcevic, 2003
• CocoaBasic Basic compiler for Mac OS X (now GPL)
• dds - obfuscated basic compiler. This is an small highly obfuscated Basic to C translator listed under the 1991 IOCCC winners. By Diomidis Spinellis

  Tiny

• Tom Pittman's original Tiny Basic rewritten in C for Dr Dobbs portal, circa 2004
• uBasic a Tiny Basic in C (BSD-style license, by Adam Dunkels, 2007)
• Integer Tiny Basic in C (by Herbert Schildt, 1988)
• Tiny Pascal Basic - Basic-S, Tiny Basic interpreter in Pascal source code (by S. A. Moore samiam@moorecad.com , 1980)
• Tiny Basic in Basic (an iziBasic sample program)
• Tiny Basic in SmallBasic by Nicholas Christopoulos
• Tiny_BASIC_in_Forth - Forth source for a Tiny Basic interpreter, 1984

• Palo Alto Tiny Basic 8080 asm source code (Bruce Sherry's disk version 3.1 of Lichen Wang's Tiny Basic)
  and the tiny basic code archive (164 Basic programs, zip file)
• 68000 Tiny Basic version 1.2 (68k asm source code) (mirror). By G. Brandly
• Tiny Basic for Arduino (C source code)
• SWTPC Tiny Basic (6800 asm source code), by Robert Uiterwyk
• A Z80 Tiny Basic (asm source code)
• Poly-88 Basic (8080 source code for a TinyBASIC)

• GE TeleBasic in GE-235 Assembly - Source code for one of the very first implementations of Basic for the Dartmouth Time Sharing System, 1965
• DEC TSS/8 Basic for the PDP-8 - another early (1969-1971) implementation of Basic for DEC minicomputers in assembly language (tokenizing compiler+interpreter)
• NASCOM ROM Basic in Z80 asm for NASCOM computer kits
• Basic in 8085 asm - by David Dunfield
• EhBASIC - Enhanced Basic interpreter for 68000 systems, by Lee Davison
• EhBASIC - Enhanced Basic interpreter in 6502 asm
  TCP/IP stack and Web Server in EhBASIC
• Basic52 80C52 asm source code (zip file) Intel 1986.

• Cheesecake BASIC V3 - a Basic interpreter written in QBasic (source code for version 0.1 here)
• CellularBASIC Open-Source BASIC Interpreter for Java-Enabled Handhelds, CLDC 1.1/MIDP 2.0 J2ME.
• JBasic - Basic Interpreter for Java JVM
• JavaBasic - Includes Java Source Code. A Java Applet Contest Entry. By Forest Ye
• MINI-BASIC - minimal Basic interpreter written in MASM32 assembly language for MSWindows
• MoonRock - a Basic to x86asm compiler written in QBasic. Author: Rowan Crowe
• MicroBasic (dead link) - a tiny Basic compiler written in QBasic/FutureBasic
• Small Basic Interpreter - written in MicroSoft VB4 (a Basic written in Basic).
  SBI source code is included with the June 97 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal. By Polar Engineering and Consulting.
• Perl Module to interpret BASIC

Basic Interpreters and Compilers

Basic for Mac OS:

• Decimal BASIC - cross-platform ANSI/ISO Full BASIC language system for Mac OS X Intel, Windows, Linux/x86 (freeware)
• RealBasic (commercial object oriented Basic compiler for Mac OS (Classic and OS X Carbon) and MSWindows (including visual interface builder and context dependant editor) (commercial product, formerly CrossBasic)
• GLBasic - cross-platform cross-compiler (commercial & free versions)
• FutureBasic (Freeware BASIC compiler for the Mac (68k & PPC), successor to ZBasic, STAZ Software)
  FBtoC (compiler project for Mac OS X Universal apps)
• TrueBasic (A Basic compiler Mac OS 9/W95, commercial product)
• BlitzMax - Blitz Basic cross-platform compiler for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux (OpenGL support, commercial product)
• METAL - Meta Language Basic (tokenizing) compiler for Mac OS X and Mac Classic (by Marin Saric)
• Extreme Basic - a RAD IDE for Win32 and Mac OS X
• TNT Basic Basic IDE with sprites, for Mac OS System 8.6 and higher
• Object Basic (Red Planet Software (now defunct)) (download Object Basic or its source code)
• MacStandardBasic (Basic compiler, commercial product)
• Crimson Compiler's SC-BASIC (Basic compiler for 68K Macs, orphaned copy) or (scbasic or SCBASIC 1.5 download page)
• Chipmunk Basic - Freeware Basic interpreter for Mac OS     (You are Here.)

• Macintosh BASIC Programming Languages - another list of 14 different Basic environments

• Emulation.net - Emulate an old computer which ran Basic (e.g. emulate an Apple II, TRS-80, C64, Atari 800, etc.) newer link

  Basic for iPhone/iPad/iOS in Apple's iTunes App store:

• HotPaw Basic - Utility category
• techBASIC - Utility category
• smart Basic - Utility category
• Basic! - Entertainment category
• Hand Basic - CBM Flavor - Education category
• iBasic - Games category
• Commodore 64 - Games category
• iAltair - Education category

  iPhone/iPad/Android app development in Basic:

• NS Basic/App Studio - Full-featured Windows-based Basic to HTML5/Javascript translator for creating iOS and Android apps.

  Basic for Google Android devices in the Android App Market:

• Mintoris Basic
• Pix Arts Light Basic
• BASIC! + SQL by Paul Laughton

  Amazon appstore for Android:

• Basic! by RFO

  Basic for PalmOS handhelds:

• HotPaw Basic - full featured Basic interpreter for PalmOS
• cbasPad5 - cbasPad update, a simple Basic interpreter for PalmOS 5
• iziBasic - an easy Basic compiler for PalmOS (shareware)
• SmallBASIC - Free BASIC for PalmOS 3.1+ and Linux (GPL/source)
• PalmBASIC - A BASIC Interpreter for PalmOS (2003)
• picoBASIC Integer - Integer BASIC for PalmOS 3.0 or later.

• NS Basic/Palm - MSWindows based IDE with visual designer (commercial product)
• HB++ - MSWindows-hosted IDE & compiler for a "VB-like" language (commercial product)
• AppForge MobileVB - MSWindows-hosted IDE for PalmOS and PPC devices (commercial product, no longer available)

  Online Basic Environments:

• Quite BASIC - online BASIC interpreter, requires web browser with JavaScript
• Applesoft BASIC interpreter in Javascript (Copyright Joshua Bell)
• Run BASIC web-based Interpreter - runs Basic from a web page
• NG-Basic for JavaScript by Navaho Gunleg
• JavaScript Basic Interpreter - claims to run Basic programs on a web page

  Basic for Other Systems:

• BASIC-like language compilers for MSWindows & Linux - a list of 58 versions
• Free BASIC Compilers and Interpreters - a list of 23 versions

• Small Basic (small accesible "fun" Basic from MSDN DevLabs)
• Just BASIC (Plain & Simple Basic for MSWindows, Freeware)
• Liberty BASIC (Basic for MSWindows, commercial product)
• BBC Basic info
• BBC Basic for MSWindows (commercial product)
• PowerBasic (commercial Basic compiler for MSDOS & MSWindows)
• Decimal BASIC - ANSI/ISO Full BASIC language system for MSWindows and linux/x86
• Emergence Basic (freeware Basic compiler for MSWindows, with a support option)
• NBasic (shareware and commercial Basic interpreters for MSWindows)
• thinBasic (Basic interpreter designed for task automation)
• OmniBasic (commercial Basic compiler W95/NT/OS2/linux)
• UBASIC - Basic-like environment for number theoretic work & extended precision math
• PureBasic - compiler for MSWindows, linux & AmigaOS (shareware)
• DarkBASIC - 3D game creation language for MSWindows (commercial product)
• BCET Compiler - Basic compiler for MSWindows (currently Freeware)
• Phoenix Object Basic Visual RAD tool for Linux (Janus)
• NS BASIC (A commercial BASIC interpreter for WinCE 2.1 and the Apple Newton) studio IDE + runtime (commercial product)
• BCX BASIC to C translator (win32) (Freeware) Author: Kevin Diggins, 1999.
• SpeedBasic a Basic to C++ translator + IDE (win32)
• BASM and Tokiwa Basic (free Basic compilers for x86) + (old link)
• Rapid-Q (beta of Free Basic for linux & MSWindows, tokenizing compiler + intepreter)
• XBasic and XBasic (open source (LGPL) x86 compiler for linux)
• XBLite - a Basic compiler for Win32 & linux/x86, (GPL'd source code)
• KBasic - cross platform Basic environment for linux & Wintel including form designer (adware & commercial)
• mbas: Mono's Basic.NET Compiler by Ximian
• Microsoft Visual Basic (big commercial development system)
• A portable Visual Basic virtual machine (run VB apps on linux??)
• Microsoft vbscript (scripting for web browsers)
• JavaBasic - Basic compiler written in Java
• TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2 Basic Interpreter - Java applet
• Programming Languages for the Java Virtual Machine - (newer link?) - This page has pointers to 5 different implementations of Basic Interpreters written in Java (JBasic, Hot Tea Basic, JavaBasic).
• The ACE Basic Home Page (freeware BASIC compiler for the Amiga), or maybe it's here.
• List of over a dozen BASIC interpreters & compilers for Commodore 8-bit machines
• PSX Chipmunk Basic (BASIC interpreter for the Sony PlayStation(tm) - by Xavier Cany)
• cbasPad (freeware Tiny Basic interpreter for the 3Com/USR PalmPilot handheld organizer/computer.)
• The Domino Microcontroller (a microcomputer module that run Basic and fits in less than 1 cubic inch!.)

Other Documentation on Basic:

Online:
• ZX81 BASIC programming page
• Applesoft BASIC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) also here
• historical docs on MCS-51 Tiny BASIC by: John Wharton, logic designer, Intel 8051
• ABC All Basic Code archives (many examples of Basic programs)

• Short Course in Basic Programming - an NOS Online Course
• QBasic tutorial
• GW-BASIC internals - tokenised program format

  Books on Programming in Basic that may still be in print :

• The Basic Handbook : Encyclopedia of the Basic Computer Language, by David A. Lien, ISBN: 0932760333
• Beginning Programming for Dummies by Wallace Wang , ISBN: 0764505963

  Other Indices:

• Catalog of Free Compilers and Interpreters
• Free or cheap programming languages (for the PC, Mac, Amiga etc.)

Other Macintosh Tools

• The Info-Mac HyperArchive has tools to convert binhex, stuffit, tar and uuencoded files.

Other Programming Resources

• interp2num - C language source code for routines that parse and interpret equations in the form of text strings into numbers, e.g. the string "2+3*7" returns the number "23.0". Derived from basic.p. (compressed unix shar file).
• C Interpreter Source Code (embeddable scripting language) (Think C source, Info-Mac stuffit binhex archive)
• Little C (interpreter for a subset of the C language, written in C) (published in Dr Dobb's Journal, August '89) (Think C source, Info-Mac stuffit binhex archive) By Herbert Schildt.
• Tiny C - Tiny C compiler capable of compiling itself
• Bob programming language (tiny OOP language, Think C source, hqx) Dave Betz's link
• xlisp a small Lisp interpreter (C source code) Dave Betz's link
• siod Scheme in One Defun. A small footprint, Scheme interpreter. (C source code)
• Apple Mac OS X Scripting
• EverythingMac developer pages
• Metrowerks WorldWide (Codewarrior, the compiler used for older releases of Chipmunk Basic for MacOS and PalmOS.)
• Xcode - development environment used for current Mac versions of Chipmunk Basic
• iPhone SDK - used for experimental versions of Basic and other iPhone apps