GW-BASIC
 |
|
| Developer | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| First appeared | 1983 |
| Stable release |
3.23 / 1988
|
| OS | DOS |
| Influenced by | |
| IBM Cassette BASIC, IBM Disk BASIC, IBM BASICA | |
| Influenced | |
| QBasic, QuickBasic, MSX BASIC | |
GW-BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language developed by Microsoft from BASICA, originally for Compaq. It is otherwise identical to Microsoft/IBM BASICA, but is a fully self-contained executable and does not need the ROM BASIC. It was bundled with MS-DOS operating systems on IBM PC compatibles by Microsoft. Microsoft also sold a BASIC compiler, BASCOM, compatible with GW-BASIC, for programs needing more speed. The language is suitable for simple games, business programs and the like. Since it was included with most versions of MS-DOS, it was also a low cost way for many aspiring programmers to learn the fundamentals of computer programming. With the release of MS-DOS 5.0, GW-BASIC's place was eventually taken by QBasic, the interpreter part of the separately available QuickBASIC compiler.
IBM BASICA and GW-BASIC are direct ports of Microsoft's BASIC-80 (also known as MBASIC) designed for 8080/Z80 machines, but added features specifically for the IBM PC hardware. Common features of BASIC-80 and BASICA/GW-BASIC include:
Conversely, BASIC-80/BASICA/GW-BASIC does not allow the line crunching in 6502 versions (where no spaces are required on a program line).
MBASIC programs not using PEEK/POKE statements would run under GW-BASIC. BASICA added a large number of features for the IBM PC such as sound, graphics, and memory commands.
Microsoft did not offer a generic version of MS-DOS until v3.20 in 1986 and before then, all variants of the OS were OEM ones. Depending on the OEM, BASIC was distributed as either BASICA.EXE or GWBASIC.EXE. The former should not be confused with IBM BASICA, which always came as a .COM file. Some variants of BASIC had extra features to support a particular machine (for example, the AT&T and Tandy versions of DOS included a special GW-BASIC that supported their enhanced sound and graphics capabilities).
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