What is "basic"

BASIC is a high-level, third-generation imperative language, originally compiled (although its implementations on microcomputers have disseminated the interpreted version) and unstructured, as it was heavily based on Fortran II.

• Basic sitaxe: Each BASIC instruction occupies one line. To use more than one line it is necessary to use a continuation character. One of the best known aspects of BASIC was the use of numbering for lines.
• Procedures and flow control: Unlike other languages, such as C, the BASIC function library is not external, but considered to be an intrinsic part of the language.
• Data types: In the original BASIC there are only two types of variables, the textual and the numerical. To declare a numeric variable you need to write an alphabetic character followed or not by a numeric. And for the textual variables you must write alphabetic characters and at the end the "$" symbol. BASIC, even the original, offers good features for handling "strings" (alphanumeric variables, text type) and this is a facility provided in the language design. The evolution of language, however, allowed new types of data to be added, such as floating point manipulation.

Sources: BASIC version 4 manual