Fun with BASIC!

Sometimes for pleasure I write audio programs in BASIC on my TRS-80 Model 100.

Some may end up in use for recording purposes, some not - but in the end it's just a zen thing really.

Don't have an old machine with a BASIC interpreter lying around? No problem!

Here's a couple useful tools to help satisfy all your BASIC needs.

MS-QBASIC Interpreter emulator

• Archive.org's MS-DOS Archive has a live Microsoft QBasic 1.1 emulation available where you can write programs in MS BASIC syntax.

Chipmunk BASIC

Want to actully save your .BAS files and run them in a local interpreter? Chipmunk Basic makes this easy.

• Grab the MacOS Beta download.
• Add it's executable to the appropriate /bin directory to get it in your execution $path.
• Plug away with commands like $ basic filename.bas (reference the README provided in the download bundle to do this correctly).
• Skim the Chipmunk BASIC Reference Manual for syntax, etc.

MS-BASIC Interpreter for Macintosh

What about Archive.org's emulation of the MS BASIC 1.0 Interpreter for Macintosh you might ask. Well, it currently appears that it and most programs in the Macintosh Software Archive are not able to receive the '-' character from my keyboard, so I can't recommend using them.