BASIC

BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) refers to a family of high-level programming languages. The first BASIC programming system was developed at Dartmouth College in 1964 by J. Kemeny and T. Kurtz, whose intention was to provide students with a simple, easy-to-use language suitable for the contemporary teletype interfaces of the era. Many variants have since evolved; some bear little or no resemblance to the original BASIC. Most BASIC programming languages, however, share a number of syntactical characteristics.