<operating system, tool> (BPS, colloquially: Barely Programming Support) A suite of utility routines from IBM to perform very simple procedures like formatting a disk or labelling a tape. BPS was only available on punched cards. [Dates?] (1998-07-08)

IBM Basic Programming Support/360 (BPS), originally called Special Support, was a set of standalone programs for System/360 mainframes with a minimum of 8 KiB of memory.

The basic step, basic figure, basic movement, basic pattern, or simply basic is the dance move that defines the character of a particular dance. It sets the rhythm of the dance; it is the default move to which a dancer returns, when not performing any other moves.

Basic life support (BLS) is a level of medical care which is used for patients with life-threatening illnesses or injuries until they can be given full medical care by advanced life support providers (paramedics, nurses, physicians). It can be provided by trained medical personnel, such as emergency medical technicians, and by qualified bystanders.

<language> (Basic CPL) A British systems language developed by Richards in 1969 and descended from CPL (Combined Programming Language). BCPL is low-level, typeless and block-structured, and provides only one-dimensional arrays. Case is not significant, but conventionally reserved words begin with a capital. Flow control constructs include: If-Then, Test-Then-Else, Unless-Do, While-Do, Until-Do, Repeat, Repeatwhile, Repeatuntil, For-to-By-Do, Loop, Break and Switchon-Into-Case-Default-Endcase. BCPL has conditional expressions, pointers, and manifest constants. It has both procedures: 'Let foo(bar) Be command' and functions: 'Let foo(bar) = expression'. 'Valof $(..Resultis..$)' causes a compound command to produce a value. Parameters are call-by-value. Program segments communicate via the global vector where system and user variables are stored in fixed numerical locations in a single array. The first BCPL compiler was written in AED. BCPL was used to implement the TRIPOS operating system, which was subsequently reincarnated as AmigaDOS. ["BCPL - The Language and its Compiler", Martin Richards & Colin Whitby-Stevens, Cambridge U Press 1979]. See OCODE, INTCODE. Oxford BCPL differed slightly: Test-Ifso-Ifnot, and section brackets in place of $( $). The original INTCODE interpreter for BCPL is available for Amiga, Unix, MS-DOS programming/languages/BCPL/">ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/amiga/programming/languages/BCPL/. A BCPL compiler bootstrap kit with an INTCODE interpreter in C was written by Ken Yap <ken@syd.dit.csiro.au>. (1995-03-26)

<language> (VBScript) Microsoft's scripting language which is an extension of their Visual Basic language. VBScript can be used with Microsoft Office applications and others. It can also be embedded in web pages but can only be understood by Internet Explorer. Visual Basic is a BASIC variant with object-oriented features. Objects include applications, windows and selections. [Relationship with ASP? VBA?] (1998-07-05)

Visual BASIC Script

Basic / BBN Combined Programming Language (Reference: BBN)

Pediatric Basic Life Support (PBLS) is a rescue procedure which has purpose of preventing the anoxic brain damage by promoting the return of spontaneous circulation and breathing in cases of cardiac arrest.

BCPL ("Basic Combined Programming Language") is a procedural, imperative, and structured programming language. Originally intended for writing compilers for other languages, BCPL is no longer in common use. However, its influence is still felt because a stripped down and syntactically changed version of BCPL, called B, was the language on which the C programming language was based. BCPL introduced several features of many modern programming languages, including using curly braces to delimit code blocks. BCPL was first implemented by Martin Richards of the University of Cambridge in 1967.