Programming

Hi everyone 👋 I wanted to share a little project I've been working on: rbbasic, a BASIC programming language compiler I'm writing in C++.

The idea is simple — and a bit nostalgic: It's a transcompiler that converts BASIC code into C, then compiles it using GCC into an executable.

🛠️ Current Status

Early alpha stage

Only basic features implemented (closer to a primitive GW-BASIC for now)

Still missing a lot of built-ins and syntax features

Focused on Windows right now — Linux support coming

The long-term dream is something like QB64-lite, maybe focused more on GW-BASIC style

🎯 Goals

See if I can actually build a working BASIC compiler 😅

Recreate the feel of GW-BASIC / QBasic on modern systems

Eventually MIT-licensed and published on GitHub

Mostly a personal hobby project right now — not aiming at mass adoption

Possibly demoing progress soon on my YouTube channel

❓ Why am I doing this?

Honestly... curiosity and love for BASIC. I code mostly in retro-style languages (FreeBASIC, QB45, Euphoria, etc.), so it feels natural to try building my own compiler even if better tools already exist today.

💬 Feedback welcome

I’d love your thoughts, advice, or suggestions. If anyone here has experience writing compilers, transpilers, or retro programming tools, I’d really appreciate hearing about your journey too.

Thanks for reading & happy coding! ✨