Programming Tutorials

Excellent Free Tutorials to Learn BASIC

Last Updated on May 5, 2023

BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use. In 1964, John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz designed the original BASIC language at Dartmouth College. They wanted to enable students in fields other than science and mathematics to use computers. At the time, nearly all use of computers required writing custom software, which was something only scientists and mathematicians tended to learn.

The advent of the personal computer was crucial to the success of BASIC. The language was designed for hobbyists, and as personal computers became more accessible to this audience, books of BASIC programs and BASIC games surged in popularity.

BASIC is generally not regarded as the easiest way to take the first steps in learning the art of programming. But it does not hinder beginners from learning how to program, or teach them bad habits. And it’s the highest low-level language. Even today, there remains value in learning BASIC.

Here’s our recommended tutorials to learn BASIC. If you’re looking for free BASIC programming books, check here.


1. FB n00b tutorials

FreeBasic is a 32-bit compiler for Windows, DOS, or Linux that is pretty much C-compatible and has many libraries ported to it. These 9 tutorials offer a useful way to learn this dialect of BASIC. It’s targeted at absolute beginners.

Read the tutorials


2. Let’s Build a Roguelike by Richard D. Clark

Let’s Build a Roguelike is a step-by-step tutorial in ebook format on creating a roguelike game from conception to finished product. The tutorial covers all the aspects of the game, from creating the title page, dungeon building, inventory items, monster ai, combat, file saving and creating a morgue file.

Read the tutorial


3. Programmer’s Guide for FreeBASIC

A series of tutorials to help you master FreeBASIC.

Read the tutorials


4. Introduction to True BASIC by Harvey Gould

This tutorial is based on the text, Introduction to Computer Simulation Methods, by Harvey Gould and Jan Tobochnik. The features of True BASIC which are common to other procedural languages are emphasized.

Read the tutorial


5. FreeBASIC Community Tutorials by Various

Here’s a wide variety of tutorials submitted by the FreeBASIC community.

Read the tutorials


6. Programming in BASIC: the absolute beginner tutorial by Yuri Yakimenko

20 lessons to teach your 12-year old how to start programming – and give them a start with some important programming techniques, even if they do not have anyone around to provide tutoring.

Read the tutorials


All tutorials in this series:

Free Programming Tutorials
ABAPAdvanced Business Application Programming
AdaALGOL-like programming language, extended from Pascal and others
AgdaDependently typed functional language based on intuitionistic type theory
AliceEducational language with an integrated development environment
ArduinoInexpensive, flexible, open source microcontroller platform
AssemblyAs close to writing machine code without writing in pure hexadecimal
AwkVersatile language designed for pattern scanning and processing
Bash‘Bourne-Again-SHell’ is both a shell and programming language
BASICFamily of general-purpose, high-level programming languages
CGeneral-purpose, procedural, portable, high-level language
C++General-purpose, portable, free-form, multi-paradigm language
C#Combines the power and flexibility of C++ with the simplicity of Visual Basic
ChapelParallel-programming language in development at Cray Inc.
ClojureDialect of the Lisp programming language
ClojureScriptCompiler for Clojure that targets JavaScript
COBOLCommon Business-Oriented Language
CoffeeScriptA very succinct programming language that transcompiles into JavaScript
CoqDependently typed language similar to Agda, Idris, F*, Lean, and others
CrystalGeneral-purpose, concurrent, multi-paradigm, object-oriented language
CSSCSS (Cascading Style Sheets) specifies a web page’s appearance
DGeneral-purpose systems programming language with a C-like syntax
DartClient-optimized programming language for fast apps
DylanMulti-paradigm language, supports functional & object-oriented programming
ECMAScriptBest known as the language embedded in web browsers
EiffelObject-oriented language
ElixirRelatively new functional language that runs on the Erlang virtual machine
ElmFunctional language that compiles to JavaScript
Emacs LispA dialect of the Lisp programming language.
ErlangGeneral-purpose, concurrent, declarative, functional language
F#General purpose, strongly typed, multi-paradigm language. Part of ML
FactorDynamic stack-based language
ForthImperative stack-based programming language
FortranThe first high-level language, using the first compiler
GDScript Godot’s built-in language for scripting and interacting with nodes
GoCompiled, statically typed programming language
GroovyPowerful, optionally typed and dynamic language
HackFor the HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM), created as a dialect of PHP
HamlHTML Abstraction Markup Language
HaskellStandardized, general-purpose, polymorphically, statically typed language
HTMLHyperText Markup Language
IconHigh-level, general-purpose language
ImbaFull-stack language that compiles to performant JavaScript
JArray programming language based primarily on APL
JavaGeneral-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, high-level language
JavaScriptInterpreted, prototype-based, scripting language
JuliaHigh-level, high-performance language for technical computing
KotlinStatically typed, general-purpose programming language with type inference
LabVIEWDesigned to enable domain experts to build power systems quickly
LaTeXProfessional document preparation system and document markup language
LessBackwards-compatible language extension for Cascading Style Sheets
LimboDesigned for applications running distributed systems on small computers
LispUnique features - excellent to study programming constructs
LogoDialect of Lisp that features interactivity, modularity, extensibility
LuaDesigned as an embeddable scripting language
MarkdownPlain text formatting syntax designed to be easy-to-read and easy-to-write
MoonScriptDynamic scripting programmer friendly language that compiles into Lua
NimStatically typed compiled systems language with syntax resembling Python
Objective-CGeneral purpose language which is a superset of C
OCamlGeneral-purpose, powerful, high-level language
OctaveHigh-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations
OpenCLOpen Computing Language
PascalImperative and procedural language designed in the late 1960s
PerlHigh-level, general-purpose, interpreted, scripting, dynamic language
PikeInterpreted, general-purpose, high-level, cross-platform, dynamic language
PHPPHP has been at the helm of the web for many years
PonyPony is an actor-model, capabilities-secure, high-performance language
PostScriptPage description language in electronic and desktop publishing
PrologGeneral purpose, declarative, logic programming language
PureScriptSmall strongly, statically typed language with expressive types
PythonGeneral-purpose, structured, powerful language
QMLHierarchical declarative language for user interface layout with a syntax to JSON
RDe facto standard among statisticians and data analysts
RacketPlatform for programming language design and implementation
RakuMember of the Perl family of programming languages
RoffExtensible text formatting language and a set of programs for printing
RubyGeneral purpose, scripting, structured, flexible, fully object-oriented language
RustIdeal for systems, embedded, and other performance critical code
ScalaModern, object-functional, multi-paradigm, Java-based language
SchemeGeneral-purpose, functional, language descended from Lisp and Algol
ScratchVisual programming language designed for 8-16 year-old children
SolidityObject-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts
SQLAccess and manipulate data held in a relational database management system
Standard MLOne of the two main dialects of the ML language
SwiftPowerful and intuitive general-purpose programming language
TclDynamic language based on concepts of Lisp, C, and Unix shells
TypeScriptStrict syntactical superset of JavaScript, adding optional static typing
VStatically typed compiled language to build maintainable software
ValaObject-oriented language with a self-hosting compiler that generates C code
VHDLVery High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language
VimLPowerful scripting language of the Vim editor
XMLSet of rules for defining semantic tags that describe the structure and meaning
ZigGeneral-purpose programming language and toolchain
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