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BASIC stands for Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, and is one of the easiest programming languages around.
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BASIC was created by John Kemeney and Thomas Kurtz in the mid 1960s at Dartmouth College, in an effort to create a single language that could do most functions a computer could reasonably be expected to do, whilst providing a moderately simple language for the user, bringing programming to more people.
During the home computer explosion of the early 1980s, machines like the Sinclair series (ZX80, ZX81, Spectrum) and the BBC series all had their own built-in dialect of BASIC. This dialect was close enough to the more original syntax and structure of BASIC, but had adaptations to suit the machine. By the late 1980s, nearly every home computer had its own custom dialect of BASIC.
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The original BASIC isn't used much anymore, and has evolved to suit the more complex needs of the modern programmer, though still true to the original ideas of BASIC. The most popular of these is Visual Basic by Microsoft. It has everything a traditional BASIC would include, plus handling and manipulation facilities to interface with Windows, with forms, buttons, text boxes and more.
There are other languages which inherit the spirit of BASIC, but more fundamentals from other languages such as C/C++. One example of this is Blitz Basic. Although the syntax is similar to BASIC, it tends to be more towards C/C++ like syntax.
Although BASIC is not used very often any more it can be useful for making fast programs for uses such as databases and task management. Many programmers still start out learning BASIC as it provides the fundamentals for the other languages.
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