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GW-BASIC is a dialect of the
BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...
developed by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
from IBM BASICA. Functionally identical to BASICA, its BASIC interpreter is a fully self-contained executable and does not need the Cassette BASIC ROM found in the original IBM PC. It was bundled with
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
s on IBM PC compatibles by Microsoft. The language is suitable for simple games, business programs and the like. Since it was included with most versions of MS-DOS, it was also a low-cost way for many aspiring
programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
s to learn the fundamentals of
computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...
. Microsoft also sold a BASIC
compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...
, BASCOM, compatible with GW-BASIC, for programs needing more speed. According to Mark Jones Lorenzo, given the scope of the language, "GW-BASIC is arguably the '' ne plus ultra'' of Microsoft's family of line-numbered BASICs stretching back to Altair BASIC and perhaps even of line-numbered BASIC in general." With the release of MS-DOS 5.0, GW-BASIC's place was taken by QBasic, a slightly abridged version of the interpreter part of the separately available QuickBASIC interpreter and compiler package. On May 21, 2020, Microsoft released the 8088 assembler source code for GW-BASIC 1.0 on
GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...
under the
MIT License The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license comp ...
.


Features

IBM BASICA and GW-BASIC are largely ports of MBASIC version 5.x, but with added features specifically for the IBM PC hardware. Common features of BASIC-80 5.x and BASICA/GW-BASIC include: * WHILE...WEND loops * Variable names of up to 40 characters * OPTION BASE statement to set the starting index of array variables as either 0 or 1 * Dynamic string space allocation * LINE INPUT, which allowed field-separator characters like comma to be ignored * CALL statement for executing machine-language routines * CHAIN and MERGE commands * Ability to save programs in either tokenized binary format or ASCII text The ability to "crunch" program lines by omitting spaces, a common feature of earlier Microsoft BASIC implementations, was removed from BASIC-80 5.x and BASICA/GWBASIC. BASIC-80 programs not using PEEK/POKE statements run under GW-BASIC. BASICA adds many features for the IBM PC such as sound, graphics, and memory commands. Features not present in BASIC-80 include the ability to execute the RND function with no parameters and the ability to also save programs in a "protected" format, preventing them from being LISTed. BASICA also allows double-precision numbers to be used with mathematical and trigonometric functions such as COS, SIN, and ATN, which wasn't allowed in 8-bit versions of BASIC. This feature was normally not enabled and required the optional parameter /D at startup, i.e., GWBASIC /D. BASIC's memory footprint was slightly increased if it was used. Microsoft did not offer a generic version of MS-DOS until v3.20 in 1986; before then, all variants of the operating system were OEM versions. Depending on the OEM, BASIC was distributed as either BASICA.EXE or GWBASIC.EXE. The former should not be confused with IBM BASICA, which always came as a
COM file A COM file is a type of simple executable file. On the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) VAX operating systems of the 1970s, .COM was used as a filename extension for text files containing commands to be issued to the operating system ...
. Some variants of BASIC has extra features to support a particular machine. For example, the AT&T and Tandy versions of DOS include a special GW-BASIC that supports their enhanced sound and graphics capabilities. The initial version of GW-BASIC is the one included with Compaq DOS 1.13, released with the Compaq Portable in 1983, and was analogous to IBM BASICA 1.10. It uses the
CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initi ...
-derived file control blocks for disk access and does not support subdirectories. Later versions support subdirectories, improved graphics, and other capabilities. GW-BASIC 3.20 (1986) adds EGA graphics support (no version of BASICA or GW-BASIC had
VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can now ...
support) and is the last major new version released before it was superseded by QBasic. Buyers of
Hercules Graphics Card The Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) is a computer graphics controller made by Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. that combines IBM's text-only MDA display standard with a bitmapped graphics mode. This allows the HGC to offer both high-quality text a ...
s received a special version of GW-BASIC on the card's utility disk that is called HBASIC, which adds support for its 720×348 monochrome graphics. Other versions of BASICA/GW-BASIC do not support Hercules graphics and can only display graphics on that card through the use of third-party CGA emulation, such as SIMCGA. GW-BASIC has a
command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...
-based
integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools ...
(IDE) based on Dartmouth BASIC. Using the cursor movement keys, any line displayed on the screen can be edited. It also includes function key shortcuts at the bottom of the screen. Like other early
microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...
versions of BASIC, GW-BASIC lacks many of the structures needed for
structured programming Structured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by making extensive use of the structured control flow constructs of selection ( if/then/else) and repetition ( ...
, such as local variables. GW-BASIC programs executed relatively slowly because it was an
interpreted language In computer science, an interpreter is a computer program that directly executes instructions written in a programming or scripting language, without requiring them previously to have been compiled into a machine language program. An interprete ...
. All program lines must be numbered; all non-numbered lines are considered to be commands in
direct mode In computing, direct or immediate mode in an interactive programming system is the immediate execution of commands, statements, or expressions. In many interactive systems, most of these can both be included in programs or executed directly in ...
to be executed immediately. Program source files are normally saved in binary compressed format with tokens replacing keywords, with an option to save in
ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...
text form. The GW-BASIC command-line environment has commands to RUN, LOAD, SAVE, LIST the current program, or quit to the operating SYSTEM; these commands can also be used as program statements. There is little support for
structured programming Structured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by making extensive use of the structured control flow constructs of selection ( if/then/else) and repetition ( ...
in GW-BASIC. All IF/THEN/ELSE conditional statements must be written on one line, although WHILE/WEND statements may group multiple lines. Functions can only be defined using the single line DEF FNf(x)= statement (e.g., DEF FNLOG(base,number)=LOG(number)/LOG(base)). The data type of variables can be specified with a character at the end of the variable name: A$ is a string of characters, A% is an
integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the languag ...
, etc. Groups of variables can also be set to default types based on the initial letter of their name by use of the DEFINT, DEFSTR, etc., statements. The default type for undeclared variables not identified by such typing statements is single-precision
floating-point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can ...
(
32-bit MBF 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
). GW-BASIC allows use of
joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...
and
light pen A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw on the screen in a similar way to a tou ...
input devices. GW-BASIC can read from and write to files and COM ports; it can also do event trapping for ports. Since the cassette tape port interface of the original IBM PC was never implemented on compatibles, cassette operations are not supported. GW-BASIC can play simple music using the PLAY statement, needing a string of notes represented in a music macro language, e.g., PLAY "edcdeeL2edfedL4c". More low-level control is possible with the SOUND statement, which takes the arguments of a
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
in
hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that o ...
and a length in clock ticks for the standard internal PC speaker in IBM machines. Consequently, sound is limited to single channel beeps and whistles as befits a "business" machine. Home-based PCs like the Tandy 1000 allow up to three channels of sound for the SOUND and PLAY commands.


Name

There are several theories on what the initials "GW" stand for. Greg Whitten, an early
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
employee who developed the standards in the company's BASIC compiler line, says that
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
picked the name GW-BASIC. Whitten refers to it as ''Gee-Whiz'' BASIC and is unsure whether Gates named the program after him. The ''Microsoft User Manual'' from
Microsoft Press Microsoft Press is the publishing arm of Microsoft, usually releasing books dealing with various current Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Press' first introduced books were ''The Apple Macintosh Book'' by Cary Lu and ''Exploring the IBM PCjr H ...
also refers to it by this name. It may have also been
nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
d ''Gee-Whiz'' because of its numerous
graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...
commands. Other common theories as to the initials' origins include "Graphics and Windows", " Gates, William" (Microsoft's president at the time), or "Gates–Whitten" (the two main designers of the program).


See also

* Microsoft Binary Format (MBF)


References


External links


GW-BASIC source code on GitHub
*



regarding BASIC, with timeline dates for DOS, Windows and BASIC dialects
GW-BASIC
– A resource for GW-BASIC, gathered from various sources. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gw-Basic Discontinued Microsoft BASICs Programming languages created in 1983 BASIC interpreters BASIC programming language family Software using the MIT license Assembly language software Formerly proprietary software Microsoft free software Microsoft programming languages