2.9 KiB
2.9 KiB
Chapter 06: BASIC + LLM - The Perfect Match
Why BASIC?
In 1964, John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz created BASIC with a revolutionary idea: programming should be for everyone. Today, General Bots brings this philosophy to the AI era.
With BASIC + LLM, you write:
TALK "What's your name?"
HEAR name
poem = LLM "Create a heartfelt poem for " + name
TALK poem
Not 50 lines of boilerplate.
The Core Keywords
Just SEVEN main keywords power everything:
| Keyword | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
| TALK | Output | TALK "Hello!" |
| HEAR | Input | HEAR name AS NAME |
| USE KB | Knowledge | USE KB "docs" |
| USE TOOL | Functions | USE TOOL "weather" |
| GET | Data | GET "api/users" |
| IF/THEN | Logic | IF age >= 18 THEN ... |
| FOR/NEXT | Loops | FOR i = 1 TO 10 ... |
Your First Tool
In the LLM world, you write tools that AI can use:
' enrollment.bas - An LLM-callable tool
PARAM name AS STRING LIKE "John Smith" DESCRIPTION "Full name"
PARAM email AS STRING LIKE "john@example.com" DESCRIPTION "Email"
PARAM course AS STRING LIKE "Introduction to AI" DESCRIPTION "Course"
DESCRIPTION "Enrolls a student in a course"
SAVE "enrollments.csv", name, email, course, NOW()
TALK "Enrolled " + name + " in " + course
The LLM handles the conversation. You define the action.
Everyone Can Program
You don't need:
- A computer science degree
- Years of experience
- Understanding of algorithms
You just need:
- An idea
- 10 minutes to learn BASIC
- Creativity
Getting Started
| Time | Goal |
|---|---|
| Minute 1 | TALK "Hello, world!" |
| Minute 5 | Add HEAR and LLM |
| Day 1 | Production-ready bot |
Documentation Guide
| Document | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Basics | Core LLM-first concepts |
| Keywords Reference | Complete keyword list |
| Templates | Real-world examples |
| Universal Messaging | Multi-channel support |
Keyword Categories
- Core: TALK, HEAR
- Context: SET CONTEXT, USE KB
- Memory: GET/SET BOT MEMORY, GET/SET USER MEMORY
- Data: GET, SAVE, FIND
- HTTP: POST, PUT, DELETE
- Files: READ, WRITE, UPLOAD
The Philosophy
BASIC in General Bots isn't about controlling conversation flow - it's about providing tools and context that LLMs use intelligently.
Write simple tools. Let AI handle the complexity.
"The beauty of BASIC lies not in what it can do, but in who it enables to do it."