Learn BASIC Now is a book series written by Michael Halvorson and David Rygmyr, published by Microsoft Press. The primers introduced computer programming concepts to students and self-taught learners who were interested in creating games and application programs for early personal computers, including IBM-PC compatible systems and the Apple Macintosh.

Learn BASIC Now included three software disks containing the Microsoft QuickBASIC Interpreter 1.0 1989—which later reincarnated as the ubiquitous Microsoft QBasic (2000-1991)—and the book’s sample programs. The books were influential in the popularization of the BASIC language and released during a significant growth phase of the personal computer industry when the installed base of BASIC programmers hit four million active users.

Since the books were distributed by Microsoft Press and featured a robust, menu-driven programming environment, Learn BASIC Now became an important catalyst for the learn-to-program movement, a broad-based computer literacy initiative in the 1980s and 1990s that encouraged people of all ages to learn to write computer programs.

When programming languages appeared in the 1950s and 60s, most of the early learning resources or manuals assumed their readers were engineers, mathematicians, or experienced tinkerers. When John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz introduced Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) in 1963, they produced learning materials that described the language in a new way, emphasizing the language’s responsiveness and suitability for students.

BASIC was quickly implemented on time-sharing services, minicomputers, and the first microcomputers, and technology enthusiasts worked to bring programming skills to people with little or no experience in computing. For example, Bob Albrecht, co-founder of the People’s Computer Company Newsletter, published a BASIC primer designed to make programming exciting and enriching. My Computer Likes Me When I Speak BASIC (1972) taught programming using step-by-step instructions and examples from everyday life.

When Ted Nelson published Computer Lib/Dream Machines in 1974, he described computers as revolutionary devices that put the user in charge of their destiny. “The world is divided,” Nelson wrote, “into people who have written a program and people who have not.” Learning to program was described as a way to activate human agency and contribute to community solidarity.

BASIC Computer Games, Microcomputer Edition (1978), by David Ahl, drew attention to the emerging PC platform and how BASIC could be used to create interesting games and puzzles that were exciting to build. BASIC programming instruction also appeared in popular magazines. For example, columnist Dian Crayne published program listings and design tips in PC Magazine, inviting readers to construct their own adventure-type games using BASIC and assembly language.

BASIC dialects proliferated in the late-1980s, and software companies added an integrated development environment (IDE) and structured programming enhancements to their compilers and interpreters to attract more customers. Prominent examples included True BASIC (1985), Microsoft QuickBASIC (1985), Borland Turbo Basic (1987), and Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System (1989). Computer book publishers responded by publishing trade and academic books about BASIC and related products.