A Due is probably 1000x. Your program isn't even stored in the MCU's flash like it is with the Pythons, it's in an external EEPROM chip. So it has to pull each program instruction from that.

Isn't copied to the RAM either, the main MCU is a normal PIC with 72 bytes of memory. So a Due has 1000x RAM also.

But if you just need to detect some switch and blink some lights, they are fine. BASIC is easy to learn and more than enough for some things. I've heard Basic Stamps are still around in some places, like Disney world.

> Regardless, the Arduino Due is 4x the CPU at about the same price. Kinda neat.

And the Due is 14 years old and kind of overpriced - there are much better options available nowadays. (For instance, there are a ton of boards based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 and RP2350, both of which will run circles around the Due.)

I haven't even seen or heard about the Parallax BASIC Stamp (or PICkit either) since the mid-2000s.

I think we can safely move on. Even the Arduino Due is pretty old. The full name they used to use of "Duemilenove" for the AVR chip boards literally means 2009.

Not sure why they should mention the Stamp. Back in the 90's and 00's they cost like $80 and were not an open system. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $160, so not even close to being as accessible as even the high end Arduinos today.

Not necessarily this BASIC, but the one from Mikroe, why over Python?

It provides a compiler and interpreter, like most BASICs that were not constrained by 8 bit home micros hardware restrictions.

Holy moley, that price though!