Return to Basics, or RTB is a programming language inspired by the BASIC programming language that was used on the microcomputers of the late 1970s and 1980s.

As well as having an interactive environment allowing program entry, debugging, listing and so on in the same way as traditional BASIC has with line numbers, it also takes a more modern approach with a full-screen syntax highlighting editor which allows easier program entry without line-numbers, a unified looping construct, multi-line if/then/else statements, named procedures and functions and many more features to list here.

It currently runs on various Linux systems.

I always like to demonstrate by example, so…

10 REM TOSS A COIN
20 c = RND (2)
30 IF c = 0 THEN GOTO 100
40 PRINT "Tails"
50 PRINT "Try again "; 
60 INPUT t$
70 IF t$ = "y" THEN GOTO 20
80 END 
100 PRINT "Heads"
110 GOTO 50

// Flip a coin

cycle
 coin = rnd (2) // gives 0 or 1

 if coin = 0 then
   print "Heads"
 else
   print "Tails"
 endif

 print "Try again ";
 input try$
repeat until try$ <> "y"

The push today is to teach coding – the question is: “how”. I think that RTB makes an ideal environment to help young people learn the principles of coding. I’m not advocating its use in the real-world, but as a step to learn the concepts of coding. It’s fast, interactive, features a full compliment of graphical functions (including turtle and sprites), sound and many other features – hopefully enough to stop anyone becoming bored at home, in the office or classroom.

• Language Reference Manual
• Download and install here

RTB is currently a private project although source code licenses are available. Get in-touch for more details.