SmallBASIC

SmallBASIC (SB) is a free software (GPL2) BASIC programming language dialect with interpreters for Linux, DOS, Win32, FLTK, VTOS, Franklin eBookMan, and Palm OS. The latest released version as of July 13, 2007, is 0.9.8.1.

Description

The dialect is described by the authors as a second generation BASIC, and has a lot in common with QBasic. It is a structured BASIC, and contains the most advanced math functions and operators found on graphing calculators such as matrices and Gauss-Jordan method. It has been suggested that this BASIC variant is good for beginners.

Intended application

SmallBASIC was not designed to be an application development environment, but was instead designed to be a simple, lightweight environment for experimentation. The strong mathematical support and inclusion of high level graphics commands like "chart" (which draws an automatically scaled and labeled graph of an array) make it ideal for tasks that are too complex for a desk calculator, but don't require a full math package like Mathematica. That it runs on Palm OS devices, greatly expands its usefulness as a super calculator.

Platforms

SmallBASIC was designed to run on minimal hardware. One of the primary platforms supported is Palm OS, where memory, CPU cycles, and screen space are limited. The SmallBASIC graphics engine can use ASCII graphics (similar to ASCII art) and therefore run many programs on pure text devices. Fossil, Inc. makes a Palm OS wristwatch, and SmallBASIC runs even on it. In addition to various hardware and operating systems, SmallBASIC is available on some platforms with different types of graphics support, including SDL, FLTK, SVGALib, Linux framebuffer, and Windows GUI.

External links

* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/smallbasic SmallBASIC's SourceForge entry]
* [http://smallbasic.sourceforge.net/ SmallBASIC Home Page at SourceForge]