Show HN: I wrote a BASIC interpreter that boots on UEFI machines

1 sources1 storiesFirst seen 8/23/2026Score20Mixed Progress

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I started writing Thoreau BASIC because I wanted a small, old-fashioned BASIC interpreter: line numbers, immediate mode, simple graphics, strings, arrays, the sort of environment where the computer starts with a "Ready" prompt and you can immediately make it do something.Then I wondered: why should it need an operating system?So I made it boot directly on x64 machines using UEFI.The UEFI version uses the Graphics Output Protocol for its framebuffer and gets its keyboard input directly from the firmware.

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There is no Windows or Linux underneath it.

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The machine boots into BASIC.It supports the usual BASIC machinery plus graphics primitives, 32-bit colour, floating point, file operations and other features I've been adding as I encounter programs that need them.

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There is now also a Windows version, which makes it considerably easier to try.One of my goals is compatibility with the style and behaviour of old Microsoft BASICs rather than creating a modern language that merely happens to use...

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A: There is no Windows or Linux underneath it.

B: There is now also a Windows version, which makes it considerably easier to try.One of my goals is compatibility with the style and behaviour of old Microsoft BASICs rather than creating a modern language that merely happens to use...