<language> (Or "MS-BASIC")
A dialect of BASIC from Microsoft, originally was developed by Bill Gates in a garage back in the CP/M days. It was originally known as GWBasic, then QBASIC and finally MS-BASIC.
When the MS-DOS operating system came out, it incorporated the GWBASIC.EXE or BASICA.EXE interpreters. GWBASIC ("Gee Whiz") incorporated graphics and a screen editor and was compatible with earlier BASICs.
QBASIC was more sophisticated. Version 4.5 had a full screen editor, debugger and compiler. The compiler could also produce executable files but to run these a utility program (BRUN44.EXE) had to be present. Thus source code could be kept private.
From DOS 5.0 or 6.0 onwards, MS-BASIC was standard. The current version, 1.1, also produces standalone executables and can display graphics.
Usenet newsgroup: comp.lang.basic.misc.
[Relationship to BASIC in ROM on first IBM PC?]
(12 May 1995)