Versions of Basic have been available since the early 60s
on timesharing systems for training, experimentation, and simple applications.
In the early 70s, a company called Basic Four brought out a small commercial system
consisting of a 16bit cpu, 2.1mb hard drive, 24k of memory, two video display stations,
and a 110cps dot matrix printer, all for the unbelievably low price of only $37,500
(Wow!).
What was really great about it, though, were the improvements made to the original
Dartmouth College Basic language to support business applications - things like keyed isam
files and formatted numeric output.
Over the years, Basic Four and other companies enhanced the language that Basic Four
had started. They released versions containing more and more business features that took
advantage of hardware and software advances. Business Basic was born.
In the 80's, Thoroughbred Software International released a version that was both an
operating system and the Basic Language, all rolled into one, that ran (very well) on a
Wyse 80386 system, using 120mb hard drive, 2mb of memory, and supported up to 32 users.
With the advent of Linux as a free operating system, we decided to create and release a
version of Production BASIC that would run under Linux, support an unrestricted number of
users, and be compatable with the object code format in which existing user's programs are
currently stored. Our system is being designed to be a free alternative to commercially
available systems.
home