[vanderZwan]

> BASIC in the 80s was a bit like Javascript in the 00s in that every browser did things did things subtly differently.

That leads to the obvious question whether there are there more modernized BASICs out there now. Is there a standardized ES6 equivalent, perhaps? ;)

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

There are a lot of BASIC languages these days, all subtly different (or radically, if you count VB.Net). BASIC variations were often quite married to their purpose, whether that was programming for a specific model of 8-bit micro, or being embedded in WYSIWYG GUI design tool.

As mentioned by someone else, QBasic is still around, and there's also Gambas (which is as close to old-school VB as one can get on Linux) if you're looking to play with something.

[jarcane]

Sadly the ECMA standard for BASIC never really got adopted by anyone (and is now pretty outdated style anyway).

MS Basic kiiinda became as close to a defacto standard as can be described, just because it was the most common and commonly imitated.

In terms of a modern standard, there's quite a few modern BASICs, but the same kind of applies: Microsoft kinda leads the field. Many of the surviving projects are either directly or indirectly based off of QuickBasic and Visual Basic, or at least heavily inspired by them.

[laumars]

From what I've seen there is 2 dialects of BASIC still in "common" use:

* FreeBASIC

* QBasic64 (an unofficial continuation of MS QBasic)

There is of course also VBScript / VBA and VB.NET but I think it's a bit a stretch to put them in the same bracket (particularly with VB.NET). It is a little like calling C# a dialect of C.

[flukus]

Not at all standardized, but VB.net is a modern basic with all the bells and whistles of c#.

In terms of experience though it's nothing like the basic on these machines. Shell scripting with curses is probably the closest modern equivalent.