Thoreau BASIC

Languages and libraries

basic interpreter

SHOW HN2026

96points
59comments
#709of 4,366 in 2026
Top 17%of 2026 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

2 positive, 8 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 3 critical, out of 13 comments about the project. Thread score -0.04.

Idea: 1 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Interest in the project and its improvements over time

    From 1 comment

Objections

  • Lacks Linux/macOS versions

    From 2 comments
  • Sound instructions seen as badly designed language bloat

    From 2 comments
    • If that was the future of the language, I'm glad BASIC is dead.
      NinjaTrance on HN
    • To give a bit more of context, here is a small subset of the new instructions: ``` - SOUND PRELOAD - SOUND INFO - SOUNDGROUP - SOUNDNAME$ - SOUNDAVAILABLE - LOADWAV - PLAYWAV -…
      NinjaTrance on HN

Requests

  • Mac or Linux version

    From 2 comments
  • Raspberry Pi or microcontroller support

    From 2 comments
    • too bad it's for win, raspberry pi, arduino, esp32, etc need this sort of stuff. lot's of hardware folks who just want to do hardware and not learn programming. they might…
      segmondy on HN
    • A Raspberry Pi/ARM port is the most realistic next step; microcontrollers are a different beast. For ESP32/RP2040 today, MMBasic/PicoMite is worth a look.
      Gorsefound on HN
  • Line numbering option in editor

    From 1 comment
    • I definitely want a code editor with a setting to number the lines by 10s.
      analog31 on HN

Questions

  • Are line numbers required?

    From 1 comment
    • Very cool. Are line numbers required? Are there plans for OS system control like setting system volume or screen brightness?
      pcdoodle1 on HN
  • How does it compare to twinBASIC?

    From 1 comment

Alternatives named

  • PureBasic

    From 1 comment
    • > What would BASIC look like Check PureBasic. https://www.purebasic.com/ Compiles to native, interfaces to C libraries, available on most platforms...
      mdp2021 on HN
  • MMBasic/PicoMite

    From 1 comment
    • A Raspberry Pi/ARM port is the most realistic next step; microcontrollers are a different beast. For ESP32/RP2040 today, MMBasic/PicoMite is worth a look.
      Gorsefound on HN
  • twinBASIC

    From 2 comments
    • How does it fare against twinBASIC?
      Trung0246 on HN
    • Ah. A VB.NET clone. The real Visual Basic not by Microsoft is TwinBASIC(closed source).
      avadodin on HN
  • BlitzMax

    From 1 comment
  • VB.NET

    From 1 comment
    • Xojo, Mikroe BASIC, VBA, and VB.NET are still around even if they don't make HN headlines.
      pjmlp on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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