Thoroughbred Basic is the 3GL at the center of the Thoroughbred Environment, alongside Dictionary-IV and Source-IV. Business Basic keeps what made it popular, fast application development and a large pool of programmers who know the language, and Thoroughbred continues to support and extend it. Thousands of business applications written in Basic are still in daily use.
Language and runtime features
- Direct, B-Tree, multi-key and C-ISAM file types
- Extended variable names and textual error messages
- String and numeric arrays
- Operating system access through shell commands, pipes and XCALL
- System, screen, printer and window management
- Business math functions and transaction processing
- SQL date types
- Machine-independent pseudo-code
Access to the 4GL tools
Thoroughbred Basic includes a library of functions that reach the facilities of Dictionary-IV. Once your file layouts and data elements are defined in Dictionary-IV, users can work with Report-IV and Query-IV, and you can keep developing in Basic, in Script-IV, or in both. Basic programs can also open Dictionary-IV screens, views and reports with CONNECT.
Character or GUI
Run the same applications on character terminals, on Windows workstations with a graphical interface through VIP for Dictionary-IV, or on a mix of the two. Your existing Basic code stays in service either way.
Moving to Thoroughbred Basic
For developers coming from another Business Basic, Thoroughbred offers porting software and consulting. We can supply translation tools or do the translation for you. See consulting and development services.
Related products
OPENworkshop builds on Thoroughbred Basic and adds object-oriented development. Report-IV to PDF is included with Thoroughbred Basic.