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As others have pointed out,
1) basic sucks, and
2) if you really need it, there are plenty of alternatives,
But since there was a very specific request to be able to type in examples from textbooks with as little impedance as necessary, I thought I'd add one useful resource:
http://eder.us/projects/jbasic/
It requires nothing other than a browser, it's operating system independent, doesn't even require Java, just JavaScript, and should work with all of your outdated textbook examples.