# Borland Turbo BASIC

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Borland Turbo BASIC and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Borland's compiled BASIC, praised as a great introduction to compiled programming and for an interface well ahead of its time.

## Why people recommend it

- Interface ahead of its time (3 comments): "This interface is magical when comparing with Turbo Pascal 3.3 and 4.0." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967216)) "The coloured shortcut letters in the menus are such a nice touch." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967543)) "amazing interface for the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49974369))
- Good introduction to compiled BASIC (2 comments): "Already a great experience with a structured compiled BASIC in 1991" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47211627)) "it was a great introduction to compiled BASIC" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49966985))
- Fondly remembered by users (2 comments): "which I had quite some fun with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47825983)) "1980s me would have loved this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968609))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [GCC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gcc.md): 138 recommend
- [Clang](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clang.md): 74 recommend
- [Free Pascal compiler](https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-pascal.md): 38 recommend
- [GraalVM Native Image](https://hackerapproved.com/p/graalvm-native-image.md): 31 recommend
- [.NET Native AOT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/net-native-aot.md): 26 recommend

## Cite as

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