Visual Basic 6 (VB6), introduced in 1998, was a major step forward in programming, particularly for Windows applications. While it has since been succeeded by Visual Basic for Applications (VBA ...

More than that, being in BASIC meant that anyone of any age could program it. I kept about 50 chronological folders of papers throughout all my BASIC design work. Each one was labelled GAME BASIC.

This is why I’ve long argued that BASIC is the most consequential language in the history of computing. It’s a language for noobs, sure, but back then most everyone was a noob.

Since the 1960s, BASIC has introduced countless beginners to computer programming. Here's how the language got started, the paths it cleared for Windows and Apple, and where you can still find it ...

BBC Basic did a lot of things, and often quite well. During the early 1980s, it extended the BASIC languages with easier loop structures, like IF/THEN/ELSE, and ran faster than Microsoft's version.