The Basic programming language had its heyday in the eighties and nineties of the last century. It was standard on the vast majority of home computers from those days. Not for nothing, because learning to program in Basic is very easy. We cover some of the best Basic apps for iOS and iPadOS.
‘Real’ programmers were and still sniff at Basic. Unjustly, because you can reach me a lot in a short time. For example, for mathematical problems or the like, a Basic program is easily put together. Also the serial calculation of formulas with various variable values: Basic is your best friend. Sure, it’s all possible in a modern spreadsheet, but Basic gives you a lot more freedom.
By the way, we are not going to give a Basic course here, there is more than enough about that online. We would like to introduce you to a few Basic interpreters for iOS and iPadOS. And forget the supposed slowness of an interpreter today. In the home computer era already mentioned, the interpreter ran on an 8-bit CPU with a clock speed of a few MHz at most. In your iPad or iPhone you will find a 64-bitter with multiple cores, which achieves clock speeds of a few gigahertz.
For you as an end user, this means an almost real-time or faster experience. And where the larger screen of your iPad invites you to computer programming complex pieces of software (especially use a physical keyboard to write code!), you can also run the same code in the same app on your iPhone. That way you can always have programs that perform frequently used calculations with you.
cbmHandBasic
Lovers of the Commodore 64 can indulge in the app cbmHandBasic. In essence, this Basic variant is based on the version that was also used in the C64, but with all kinds of added extras to easily realize graphical matters. The latter option is by the way an extra in-app purchase, so if you don’t need graphic functions, you can keep the money for it in your pocket.
Once started, the editor indeed works in the way known from the C64. Click or tap on the screen and you will see four buttons. These lead you to various options, including the option to quickly insert functions. You save a program with the command save”program name” and then an enter.
To find out what programs are available on the built-in storage, tap the command dir followed by an enter. You open a program by using the command load”program name”.
Included are various example programs, from which you can quickly learn how everything works technically. Note: file names are case sensitive! You can start an open program via the command run. Stopping a running program is done via the button X.
Nano Basic
Nano Basic has a more modern, structured version of Basic on board. So forget those line numbers and stick to procedures and loops. As a result, this variant may be a better run-up to modern programming languages. Also, if you use a ‘line number interpreter’, simply sticking to subroutines effectively counteracts the dreaded goto spaghetti. That aside, though.
Nano Basic is otherwise a simple version of Basic, support for graphical commands is missing. The question is whether you will miss it for many things. In case of emergency, you can still create ASCII charts made up of, for example, asterisks. If you want to use a Basic interpreter as a substitute for a graphing calculator, this may be a less practical choice.
Basic!
the app Basic! is in terms of possibilities a mix between cbmHandBasic and Nano Basic. Firstly, it is a modern variant of Basic, which can be used to easily create structured programs. In addition, it has all kinds of commands for graphics (including sprites, for the enthusiasts) and sound on board. Whereby, ‘hires’ is now also really high resolution thanks to the screen resolution of your iPad or iPhone.
The app is divided into an editor and a terminal. In the editor you create your program, in the terminal you start your programming. This keeps everything clear and practical to use. Various sample programs are included with which you can get started right away.
Switch to the editor with a tap or click Code in the button bar at the bottom of the screen. Then tap load, choose your program with a double tap or click from the list and start it with the command run followed by pressing enter in the terminal. Or adapt the source code entirely to your own liking!
Programming Apps in App Store
Apple generally doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about programming languages in the form of apps. One is regularly removed from the App Store. And just as often they reappear in slightly modified form after a while. For both cbmHandBasic and Basic! Fortunately, they have been available stable in the app store for many years.
For nano Basic, we suddenly received a message that this app is no longer available in our country. Hopefully that’s a mistake and it will reappear soon! The homepage of nano Basic still exists and is kept up to date, so it won’t be the cause.
Worth the effort
The advantage of the apps mentioned is that they are all user-friendly. Is it ‘wise’ to learn Basic in 2021? There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, programming is programming. If you are still of the old guard who mastered Basic well in the eighties and nineties, then it would be a shame to throw that knowledge overboard. Certainly when it comes to programs that solve annoying repetitive (mathematical) problems, or if necessary calculate some lab results.
The larger screen of the iPad certainly comes in handy and it also makes this device just a bit more ‘open’. Because now you can also put together quick-and-dirty programs without a development environment for complete apps with a slick graphical interface. And that regularly comes in handy for quite a few users who work in the more technical-scientific field (or study in that field).
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