Getting GW-BASIC
The GW-BASIC IDE
GW-BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language developed by Microsoft from IBM BASICA. It was bundled with MS-DOS operating systems on IBM PC compatibles by Microsoft. The language is suitable for simple games, business programs and the like. Since it was included with most versions of MS-DOS, it was also a low-cost way for many aspiring programmers to learn the fundamentals of computer programming.
There are a few options to getting GW-BASIC on your computer. The first option is to install DOSBox, a free, cross platform MS-DOS emulator which is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and other Operating Systems. This is a MS-DOS emulator in which GW-Basic can be installed although DOSBox tends to be more used for playing DOS games.
Another free option is PC-Basic, a cross-platform emulator for the GW-BASIC family of interpreters. This is a more up to date solution with better integration with the users Operating System.