I read on various forums that HPPL is similar to BASIC, but in reality it just is not true. HP-PRIME Programming Language (HPPL) is more similar to Pascal and the author himself, Bernard Parisse, explains the origins*:

"The first version of the PPL was in the hp39gii, it was mostly an uppercase translation of the Xcas programming language, using keywords instead of ponctuation for obvious pedagogical reasons. The Xcas programming language is itself inspired by the maple language, itself inspired by Pascal and Algol."

*http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-2038-post-18415.html#pid18415




greetings to all,
supergems

Yeah the reason why people think it's like BASIC is because they are used to TI-BASIC and Casio BASIC syntax. For example, a for loop in TI-83 Plus BASIC looks like this:

For(Z,0,1000,5)
If Z<500
Then
2*Z->A
3*Z->B
End
4Z->C
End

In Casio BASIC I think it's more like this:

For 0->Z To 1000 Step 5
If Z<500
Then
2*Z->A
3*Z->B
End
4*Z->C
Next

And HP PPL

FOR Z FROM 0 TO 1000 STEP 5 DO
IF Z<500 THEN
2Z->A;
3Z->B;
END;
4*Z->C;
END;

alternate HP PPL syntax:

FOR Z FROM 0 TO 1000 STEP 5 DO
IF Z<500 THEN
A := 2Z;
B := 3Z;
END;
C := 4*Z;
END;

I am unsure if it's similar to original computer BASIC languages and I know it looks similar and closer to Pascal, but the similarities with other competitor calc languages could explain why people think HP PPL is a form of BASIC.

And yeah the official name is HP Prime Programming Language. I assume the language name on the HP Prime ancestor (HP 39gII) would be HP39PL or HP39gIIPL.