minibasicjs

MiniBASIC (Joe Strout's)

Keywords

Don't let the name and the "js" in the tag name fool you: Joe Strout's MiniBASIC, announced at February 26th, 2023, has no relationship with the previous Malcolm McLean's minibasic project, nor is it a JavaScript implementation.

Beware of the differential letters here as well, because, out of pure coincidence, Joe's MiniBASIC runs on his Mini Micro, a kind of a virtual, fantasy retrocomputer emulator. An online, browser-based version with some limitations is available at https://joestrout.itch.io/minibasic (last checked 2023-03-01). Joe's MiniBASIC is implemented using Mini Micro's own language, called Mini Script, and is supposedly easily extensible with it.

Where it is/was used

Noteworthy characteristics

Simplicity with 8-bit, 1980s retro flavour is surely the goal of this line-numbered BASIC interpreter, whose "feature set is just a bit beyond the best of the 1980s home computer" with "all the little bits of polish that didn't exist at the time", in the author's words 1). It implements a subset of the most common Microsoft-based interpreters of the golden era, with traces of Applesoft inclination, just enough to be able to run some games and simple type-in programs (some are included as examples).

Environment and usage

Extensions

Curiosities

Influenced by

Influence for

Versions and successors

References

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1)
https://dev.to/joestrout/announcing-minibasic-1i6f, last checked 2023-03-01