{"slug": "purebasic", "name": "PureBasic", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.899, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-12-10", "latest": "2026-08-10", "why": "I used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004.  It was super simple.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004.  It was super simple.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "purebasic.fr", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.purebasic.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["PureBasic"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 785742115, "item_id": 49108882, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49108882", "by": "WillAdams", "date": "2026-07-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "probably going to get PureBasic/SpiderBasic for my next project", "excerpt": "Or, what Jef Raskin would have thought of MacBasic: https://www.folklore.org/MacBasic.html Agree w/ the page author's fondness for RealBasic --- still have a copy of _BASIC for Windows 3.0_ which had a copy of it on a floppy disk (and a nifty graphical poker game as an example). Xojo is alive and well, though I haven't been able to justify a license, (diverted to HyperCard and Runtime Revolution which became LiveCode", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Apple Calculator Language"}, {"id": 755369680, "item_id": 47210605, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47210605", "by": "tredre3", "date": "2026-03-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "PureBasic is very neat.", "excerpt": "PureBasic is very neat. I bought my license almost 20 years ago and I still use it to make small GUI utilities. It's a very nice IDE/editor and the famfamfam icons are always comfy. It's still alive because it's a passion project for the developer, he doesn't make a lot of money from it. Not because the tool declined in quality, but because nowadays efficient RAD is a very niche market and the licenses are still vali", "context": "", "use_case": "small GUI utilities", "switched_from": "", "story": "PureBasic: The Quiet Survivor"}, {"id": 739593856, "item_id": 46224616, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46224616", "by": "dham", "date": "2025-12-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004.  It was super simple.", "excerpt": "I used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004. It was super simple. Looks like it's still around and the site looks unchanged since then. Probably crazy fast on modern hardware", "context": "", "use_case": "native GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "You used to be able to just create a Native GUI App in 10 seconds"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["small gui utilities", "native gui apps"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49243049", "title": "item 49243049", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49107437", "title": "The Apple Calculator Language", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47210232", "title": "PureBasic: The Quiet Survivor", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46220216", "title": "You used to be able to just create a Native GUI App in 10 seconds", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 787888801, "item_id": 49243050, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49243050", "by": "Caronte3D", "date": "2026-08-10", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "export the project to PureBasic to create a much more powerful native application", "excerpt": "Hi, I'm the developer of SpikeUI, an independent Windows application builder that I'm currently developing. It started as a visual UI designer, but it has evolved into something quite different: you can build the interface and application logic visually using nodes, and, when needed, export the project to PureBasic to create a much more powerful native application. Also, you can export to HTML/CSS/JS. I thought it mi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 785742115, "item_id": 49108882, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49108882", "by": "WillAdams", "date": "2026-07-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "probably going to get PureBasic/SpiderBasic for my next project", "excerpt": "Or, what Jef Raskin would have thought of MacBasic: https://www.folklore.org/MacBasic.html Agree w/ the page author's fondness for RealBasic --- still have a copy of _BASIC for Windows 3.0_ which had a copy of it on a floppy disk (and a nifty graphical poker game as an example). Xojo is alive and well, though I haven't been able to justify a license, (diverted to HyperCard and Runtime Revolution which became LiveCode", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Apple Calculator Language"}, {"id": 755369680, "item_id": 47210605, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47210605", "by": "tredre3", "date": "2026-03-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "PureBasic is very neat.", "excerpt": "PureBasic is very neat. I bought my license almost 20 years ago and I still use it to make small GUI utilities. It's a very nice IDE/editor and the famfamfam icons are always comfy. It's still alive because it's a passion project for the developer, he doesn't make a lot of money from it. Not because the tool declined in quality, but because nowadays efficient RAD is a very niche market and the licenses are still vali", "context": "", "use_case": "small GUI utilities", "switched_from": "", "story": "PureBasic: The Quiet Survivor"}, {"id": 739593856, "item_id": 46224616, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46224616", "by": "dham", "date": "2025-12-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004.  It was super simple.", "excerpt": "I used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004. It was super simple. Looks like it's still around and the site looks unchanged since then. Probably crazy fast on modern hardware", "context": "", "use_case": "native GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "You used to be able to just create a Native GUI App in 10 seconds"}]}