QuickBASIC

Microsoft QuickBASIC (QB or QBASIC) is a descendant of the BASIC programming language that was developed by the Microsoft Corporation for use with the MSDOS Operating System. It was loosely based on Microsoft GW-BASIC but added improved graphics and disk support.

Microsoft released the first version of QuickBASIC on August 18, 1985 in the form of a 5.25" floppy disk. QuickBASIC came with a markedly different Integrated Design Environment (IDE) from the one supplied with previous versions of BASIC. Line numbers were no longer needed since users could insert and remove lines directly via an onscreen text editor.

Microsoft's "PC BASIC Compiler" was included which could be used to compile programs into DOS executables. The editor also had an interpreter built in which would run the program without leaving the editor at all, and could be used to debug the program before creating an executable file.

The last version of QuickBASIC was 4.5 although there was continued development of the Professional Development System (PDS), the last release of which was version 7.1. The PDS version was also called QuickBASIC Extended. The successor to QuickBASIC and PDS was Visual Basic 1.0 which came in versions for both DOS and Windows.