Install bas55 with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• bas55

Project history

The official manual identifies bas55 as an ECMA-55 Minimal BASIC System and documents version 2.0, updated on 6 May 2023. The project homepage hosts the current 2.0 source, Windows package, online manual, NEWS file, older source archives back through 1.01, and a link to the GitHub source repository.

The NEWS file shows active development across the mid-2010s through 2023. Much of that history is conformance work: fixing parsing, numerical behavior, editor behavior, and bundled National Bureau of Standards test cases so the interpreter behaves consistently across systems.

Adoption history

bas55 is niche by design, but it is packaged by Homebrew according to the input metadata, and the official homepage provides source and Windows builds directly. Its audience is people who want a portable ECMA-55 environment, not people looking for a general BASIC with graphics or platform-specific extensions.

The homepage also points users to John Gatewood Ham's ECMA-55 compiler and learning materials, placing bas55 inside a small ecosystem of Minimal BASIC preservation and education tools.

How it is used

Users start bas55 at the command line and enter numbered BASIC lines in editor mode, then run, list, save, load, and renumber programs. The manual's tutorial begins with the traditional two-line HELLO, WORLD program and documents ECMA-55 restrictions such as upper-case program text and required END statements.

There is no documented persistent configuration file or credentials store; usage is interactive or file-based through the interpreter and editor.

Why package nerds care

bas55 matters to package nerds because it is a tiny language runtime whose value is standards fidelity. It packages an old standardized programming environment as a modern CLI, with bundled tests and changelog entries focused on portability and repeatable behavior.

It is also a good example of long-tail Homebrew content: not a mainstream runtime, but a preserved computing artifact that becomes easy to install with one command.

Timeline

• 2015: NEWS entries show active conformance and portability work on the interpreter.
• 2018: Project website moved to jorgicor.niobe.org and libedit support was documented.
• 2020: Numeric behavior was made more consistent across platforms and tests.
• 2023: Version 2.0 changed the project license to GPLv3-or-later and added GNU Readline support.
• 2023: The official manual was updated for bas55 2.0.

Related projects

• ECMA-55 is the Minimal BASIC standard implemented by bas55.
• The official homepage links to John Gatewood Ham's ECMA-55 Minimal BASIC compiler and learning material as related software and documentation.
• The National Bureau of Standards Minimal BASIC test programs are referenced by the homepage and NEWS file as a conformance resource.

Sources

• https://github.com/jorgicor/bas55
• https://jorgicor.niobe.org/bas55
• https://jorgicor.niobe.org/bas55/NEWS
• https://jorgicor.niobe.org/bas55/bas55.html
• source_facts.package-manager