Gambas is one of the most comfortable options for self-learners. I don't like BASIC all that much, but the platform in itself is very nice. It does reminds me of the RAD era of programming. Technologies like Gambas, Neobook, Embarcadero and Windows Forms are not all seen with some contempt, but I enjoyed working with them very much back in the day. You could just get stuff done. One IDE, one language, one toolset... literally the most get-shit-done era of programming...