Overview:
BASIC was invented in 1964 by Dartmouth College Professors John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz so that their students could quickly write useful computer programs and at the same time understand what they were doing. English-like functions and statements helped ordinary folks perform extraordinary feats with their computer programs. True BASIC is still unequaled for raw power, logical approach, and easy-to-comprehend usability.

From Academic Use to a Commercial Company:
In 1983 a group of graduating Dartmouth students persuaded Kemeny and Kurtz to offer their programming language as a commercial product. The company, True BASIC Inc., was formed and versions of the language were created for both the DOS and Mac operating systems. What had been Dartmouth BASIC 7 became the first version of True BASIC. From the beginning, True BASIC was a fully structured language.

Early on John Kemeny insisted that operating systems would change dramatically in the coming years and that True BASIC should NOT be limited to one computer platform. Today versions of True BASIC are available for DOS, MacOS, Windows, Unix, and Linux systems. The functions and statements are the same on all platforms and give you unequaled portability for your source code.

Now, nearly 30 years later, True BASIC continues to be one of the oldest surviving and most widely used programming languages. It allows folks who know their field or subject to write useful programs without dedicating their lives to mastering hard-to-understand computer languages. True BASIC will always be available -- either as a commercial product or as an open source resource. While other languages come and go, True BASIC continues to gain more and more users as they discover its inherent power and simplicity.