I have been using Great Cow Basic for many years for my Microchip PIC microcontroller projects.
GCBasic is a Basic structured compiler. Very comprehensive. Easy to use. The code produced is very fast. Open source. Free.
I am an occasional programmer. I started out using assembler but found writing high level routines hard work.
C was an option but too much work was required to be proficient for my infrequent use.
Whenever you have a new chip and development setup many users attach an LED to a chip pin to get started.
The circuit is powered by a 3.2v LiFePO4 battery.
Here is a simple example used to flash an LED:
