--- title: Acidica | daily.dev description: Ned Batchelder built Acidica, a toy BASIC interpreter written in Python for fun during a vacation week. The project implements the Vintage BASIC spec, supports... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/acidica-9mjbibp7h twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Acidica | daily.dev og:description: Ned Batchelder built Acidica, a toy BASIC interpreter written in Python for fun during a vacation week. The project implements the Vintage BASIC spec, supports... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/acidica-9mjbibp7h og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/9mJbIBp7h.png og:image:alt: Acidica og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Acidica **[Planet Python](https://daily.dev/sources/planetpython)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Ned Batchelder built Acidica, a toy BASIC interpreter written in Python for fun during a vacation week. The project implements the Vintage BASIC spec, supports classic constructs like FOR, IF, GOTO, and string/numeric variables, and is tested exclusively with integration tests (each test is a BASIC program with expected output). The author deliberately avoided AI assistance and unit tests, embracing a slower, hands-on development style. Future possibilities include using it as a test bed for development ideas or adding a BASIC-to-Python transpiler. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A 1024 Byte Python Interpreter](https://daily.dev/posts/a-1024-byte-python-interpreter-ombsbouew) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [BASIC Code](https://daily.dev/posts/basic-code-pbp32tcp0) · Two Stop Bits · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [BASIC On A Calculator Again](https://daily.dev/posts/basic-on-a-calculator-again-x5atf2aaa) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Micro language implementation: Calcium](https://daily.dev/posts/micro-language-implementation-calcium-7esmxmfk7) · Planet Python · 8 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/acidica-9mjbibp7h) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Acidica","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/acidica-9mjbibp7h","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/acidica-9mjbibp7h"},"datePublished":"2026-07-26T16:51:28.110Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T21:06:43.794Z","description":"Ned Batchelder built Acidica, a toy BASIC interpreter written in Python for fun during a vacation week. The project implements the Vintage BASIC spec, supports...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CxzD6vbw--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2005","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CxzD6vbw--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2005","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Planet Python","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Planet Python","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/eac3cc584cb043b5a242d13752bd3d0c","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/planetpython"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/acidica-9mjbibp7h","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"python,testing","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Planet Python","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/planetpython"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Acidica"}]} ```