# BBC BASIC

7 Hacker News commenters recommended BBC BASIC and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a far better BASIC than the C64's, with integrated assembly support and a rich dialect.

## Why people recommend it

- Better than C64 BASIC (2 comments): "C64 BASIC wasn't great compared to BBC BASIC on the school BBC Micros" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946584)) "BBC BASIC was far better than C64 BASIC." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48284292))
- Integrated assembler for learning hardware (2 comments): "That assembler was great when I was cutting my programming teeth and progressing a bit beyond BASIC to better understand the hardware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48292169)) "mostly run stuff under BBC BASIC (with it's integrated assembly support)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967159))
- Bundled with RISC OS and Acorn (2 comments): "You could just use RISC OS on the PI for BBC Basic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48306867)) "comes with its own rather nice Acorn/BBC BASIC" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49976762))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend
- [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend
- [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend
- [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend
- [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "BBC BASIC", https://hackerapproved.com/p/bbc-basic/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).