BBC BASIC for Windows
Safe To Install
BBC BASIC for Windows is an advanced implementation of BBC BASIC for PCs running Microsoft Windows™ (Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1), providing the programmer with a familiar language but with a modern interface. It combines the simplicity of BASIC with the sophistication of a structured language, allowing you to write utilities and games, use sound and graphics, perform calculations and create complete Windows™ applications. In short, using BBC BASIC you will be able to make your PC do what you want it to!
The Graphical User Interface includes a BASIC program editor with syntax colouring, live indentation, search & replace and many other features (see the screenshot below). Built-in diagnostic aids such as run-time trace, listing of variables and single-step execution make debugging even the most complex programs straightforward.
Up to 512 Megabytes of memory is provided for the user's program, data and stack (subject to sufficient RAM being available). Unlike some older versions of BASIC, you won't suffer the frustration of running out of memory! Line numbers are optional.
BBC BASIC for Windows uniquely incorporates an assembler which generates 32-bit code and accepts all 80486 instructions and some Pentium-specific instructions (except special-register and privileged instructions), including floating-point and Multi Media Extensions. You can access the Windows™ Application Program Interface both from BASIC and from assembler code, allowing an experienced programmer to produce sophisticated applications.
The full version allows you to create a compact (typically less than 100K) stand-alone executable (.EXE) file from your BASIC program, which will run without BBC BASIC having to be installed and without the need for any special DLLs. You can distribute such executables freely without any royalty for BBC BASIC being due.
BBC BASIC for Windows is largely compatible with Version 5 of BBC BASIC resident in the Acorn Archimedes and Iyonix computers. It also retains a high degree of compatibility with the BBC Microcomputer, including emulation of the SOUND and ENVELOPE statements, and the MODE 7 (teletext) screen mode.
However this is by no means a language stuck in the past: it is fully integrated with Windows™ and has many new and advanced features including data structures, PRIVATE variables, long strings, event interrupts, an address of operator, byte variables, a line continuation character, indirect procedure and function calls and improved numeric accuracy.
BBC BASIC for Windows costs only £29.99 including VAT (£24.99 plus VAT, or about US$ 40). Your purchase is 'for life': upgrades and bug-fixes are free, forever! You can pay using any of the following methods:
Please note that purchase by digital download is NOT AVAILABLE to customers located in the European Union but outside the United Kingdom. If you are in that category, and wish to purchase BBC BASIC for Windows, please use one of the alternative methods below
The product is normally supplied on CD-ROM and is delivered by First Class letter post. We aim to dispatch your order within 48 hours of receipt, but in exceptional circumstances it may take up to 14 days. If you order online using a Credit Card or PayPal, you will instead receive instructions on how to download the file (approximately 3½ Mbytes). If you have different requirements please let us know.
A free evaluation version is available. This is fully functional except that the amount of memory available for the user's program, data and stack is restricted to 32K bytes, and the Compile command is not available. You can download it from here.
BBC BASIC for Windows is supplied with more than 50 example programs to illustrate what can be achieved and to give you a head start. For more information see the online manual and beginners' tutorial, which are also supplied with both the evaluation and full versions.
See also the Frequently Asked Questions page where you will find answers to common queries. For details of the current version and recent additions to the online documentation see the latest updates page.
On the links page you will find details of the websites of some users, from where you can download programs written by them in BBC BASIC and 'compiled' to produce Windows™ executables. More ready-to-run executables can be found in the Example Programs section of this web site.
BBC BASIC for Windows is the Copyright © 2001-2015 of R. T. Russell. It is supplied for use on one computer at a time only. Neither the program nor its accompanying documentation may be copied for simultaneous use by the purchaser nor for use by anyone other than the purchaser (however see above for exceptions related to the use of the manual in schools and colleges). Multi-user site licences are available, for example a 10-user licence costs £85, a 20-user licence costs £115 and a 50-user licence costs £185 (all excluding VAT). Contact us with your requirements for more details.
The Free download is a crippled version for trial use
BBC BASIC for Windows (both the full and evaluation versions) is supplied with more than 50 example programs to illustrate what can be achieved and to get you started. Here you will find some additional examples which can be viewed and run (so long as you have a Windows™ PC) without having to download and install BBC BASIC for Windows. They give a flavour of what can be achieved with short BBC BASIC programs, and can be taken as examples of good programming 'style'.
Each program is listed in plain text (which can be cut and pasted into BBC BASIC for Windows) and is also made available for download as a tokenised (binary) file. In addition a 'compiled' executable is provided which can be run simply by clicking on the link, so you can see the programs working on your own PC (they should be entirely safe to run, but of course you do so at your own risk). All example programs are the Copyright © of R.T.Russell, 2005-2011, but you are free to use them (or parts of them) in your own BBC BASIC programs.
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http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcwin/bbcwin.html
