Microsoft Basic

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What Does Microsoft Basic Mean?

Microsoft Basic (MS-BASIC) is Microsoft’s first product, released in 1975 by Microsoft’s cofounders, Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Microsoft Basic was a high-level programming language that helped developers create programs on Altair 8800 microcomputers. It was succeeded by Visual Basic and Small Basic, and is now considered obsolete.

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Techopedia Explains Microsoft Basic

Microsoft Basic was a primary programming language with a number of versions, such as Altair Basic, Applesoft Basic and Amiga Basic. Altair Basic, which was the first, was delivered on paper tape and its original version had 4 KB of memory, which was later changed to 8 KB and then generalized into BASIC-80 (8080/85, Z80), and ported into BASIC-68 (6800), BASIC-69 (6809), and MOS Technology 6502-BASIC. Early computers had no ROM, and hence Visual Basic was ideal for such devices. It required no code editor, disk memory or linking, and therefore saved space and memory.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.