Programming in GW-BASIC

Every computer in the 1980s and into the 1990s had some kind of BASIC programming environment. The BASIC on the first IBM PC was BASICA, which required a BASIC ROM. After that, Microsoft released GW-BASIC, which didn't require BASIC in ROM. GW-BASIC was the default BASIC in MS-DOS until MS-DOS 5, when they replaced it with QBASIC.

In May 2020, Microsoft released the GW-BASIC source code under the MIT license, and FreeDOS developers have been getting that code to assemble using modern tools. They recently released a new version, so let's explore GW-BASIC on FreeDOS.

The original GW-BASIC source code: (MIT license)

Updated GW-BASIC project:

Want to start programming in GW-BASIC? Here's a handy reference:

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[pwnrz]

I could listen to this guy talk all day

[decud]

Loved it 😃 I became nostalgic seeing my first programming language!

[boa]

Thanks for your clip about programming in GW-Basic.

[terrybullock]

Great video. I bought my first PC in 1988/9 and it came with GW-BASIC. I picked this up straightaway and then went on to Borland's Turbo Basic (precursor to PowerBasic) which actually compiled your code into .EXE files. Ahh, the power...

[noble_draconian]

QBASIC is what started my entire software engineering career. Getting tons of nostalgia watching this, even if it is a different BAISC interpreter, haha.

[rembrandtes]

great program and it really works fine thanks for sharing my like is done .

[johnafagerquist]

I taught myself BASIC from 1982, when was 14. I was very adept at it's use. It's the only language I ever learned. As a result, I absolutely cannot fathom how other languages do not use line numbers. If were 25, or even 35, I might look into attending some schooling to be able to understand how a computer program can function without line numbers, but I'm not, and, after several attempts by good folks who were too nerdy to tone down their jargon to where I could follow, I ended up at 54 years old, no longer giving a rat's behind. I can still write programs in GW BASIC to do whatever I need; and quite powerful ones at that.

[grappydingus]

SAVE"GUESS", A will save the file in readable ASCII in GW-BASIC, if you'd like. Also, love the the C program.

[mobluse]

It’s great if this successful compilation of GWBASIC can lead to that it will be included in FreeDOS. It was the missing piece that you always had to download manually.

[nuk]

IIRC, BASICA came with PC-DOS (generally made for IBM-manufactured microcomputer) whereas GW-BASIC typically came with MS-DOS (generally meant for non-IBM manufactured PC "clones"). BASICA was an "extension" to the existing code in the ROM BASIC -- adding some functionality such as disk access (otherwise you're limited ot cassette storage), while GW-BASIC that came with MS-DOS (version of DOS you'd use in non-IBM "clone") would be a stand-alone BASIC interpreter (since many non-IBM "clone" computer may not have included a built-in ROM BASIC -- probably because of extra cost as they'd need to license it to include it in ROM). PC-DOS would generally only work on IBM-manufactured PCs, whereas MS-DOS would work on both IBM-manufactured PCs as well as "clone" PCs.

[rbandsoulclassicschannel]

How do you print a one digit number as two digits number in GWBASIC on screen? Example 1 as 01, 2 as 02, 3 as 03 up to 9, so that when printing up to 99 the single digits will line up with the two digits numbers on screen. Please help me.

[nuk]

Does anybody else remember DONKEY.BAS ?