Differences between version 16 and predecessor to the previous major change of BASIC.
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| Newer page: | version 16 | Last edited on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 5:44:55 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
| Older page: | version 10 | Last edited on Saturday, September 13, 2003 1:08:54 pm | by GerwinVanDeSteeg | Revert |
@@ -1,23 +1,22 @@
-[Acronym] for __B__eginners __A__ll-Purpose __S__ymbolic __C__ode.
+[Acronym] for __B__eginners __A__ll-Purpose __S__ymbolic __I__nstruction
__C__ode (supposedly a backronym, made up after the name [BASIC] was already in use)
.
-(This
is supposedly a "backronym" - made up after
the name
BASIC was already in use)
.
+A simplistic interactive ProgrammingLanguage designed at Dartmouth University in the 1960's to teach mathematics students how to program. They would go on to programming in [Fortran] IV, so this
is the language that [
BASIC] most closely resembles
.
-A simplistic interactive ProgrammingLanguage designed at Dartmouth University in the 1960's
to teach mathematics students how to program. They would go on to programming in
[Fortran
] IV, so this is the language
that Basic most closely
resembles.
+Not
to be confused with VisualBasic, a wildly extended dialect of
[BASIC
] that only
resembles its ancestor remotely and is still part of MicrosoftCorporation's portfolio and strategy
.
-BASIC's
control structures are as primitive as those in AssemblyLanguage. A BASIC program is series of numbered statements that are usually executed in sequence. A GOTO statement sends execution to another statement. An IF statement does that conditionally. GOSUB and RETURN call
subroutines.
+In the original [
BASIC] language, the available
control structures are as primitive as those in AssemblyLanguage. A [
BASIC]
program is series of numbered statements that are usually executed in sequence. A __
GOTO__
statement sends execution to another statement. An __
IF__
statement does that conditionally. Using __
GOSUB__
and __
RETURN__ you can implement
subroutines, but there's no stack to pass parameters with
.
-Basic became very popular in
the era
of HomeComputers because
a Basic interpreter was small and simple
and would fit in
[ROM
]. (Some [PC]s even had it in ROM - INT 18. I remember trying it in [DOS]'s debug program
and the machine would lock up saying
"no basic rom installed
" or something. Sad
.)
+As there are no structuring constructs, there is no concept of scope, and every single variable is global. In
the absence
of user defined functions, expressiveness is extremely limited, so you need
a ''lot'' of temporary variables. Combine these limitations,
and the result is that most
[BASIC
] code is a mess that ranges somewhere between "hideous"
and "appaling", with occasional side trips to "hair raising" and "seizure inducing
".
-Lots of little kids leaned
to program in BASIC. Some never recovered
[2
]. Every home computer
had a different dialect of
BASIC, so there
are thousands
of dialect of BASIC. One reason for this is that BASIC is so pathetically limited it needs to be heavily extended to make it useful. Most BASIC dialects still in use have been extended to strongly resemble [Pascal]
.
+;: ''It is practically impossible
to teach good programming style to students that [
[sic
] have
had prior exposure to [
BASIC]; as potential programmers they
are mentally mutilated beyond hope
of regeneration
.'' %%% -- EdsgerWybeDijkstra
-There
is no real use for BASIC on
[Linux
]. If you you think you want BASIC
, then you'd probably be happier with
[Python
] and a good learn-Python textbook
.
+The language
is so pathetically limited that it needs to be heavily extended to be useful. Of course, every implementor chose their own ways to do so, so there are thousands of dialects of
[BASIC
]. Some have quite sophisticated extensions
, and most of those still in use have been extended to strongly resemble
[Pascal
].
-Basic
is favoured by Microsoft for some reason. Don't ask me why. They even made
a "Visual" version. Maybe they were on drugs
.[1
]
+[BASIC] became very popular in the era of HomeComputers because a [BASIC] interpreter
is simple and so could easily be fit on
a tiny [ROM]
. Lots of little kids learned to program in one of the thousands of flavours of
[BASIC
] this way, some never to recover.
-----
-1
] Back when Bill Gates was real programmer he wrote Basic
interpreters for the first microcomputers
(maybe he was on drugs
), so he
's had a soft spot for Basic
ever since
.
+BillGates (who for all we know is probably one of those never
-recovered
[BASIC] kids) started MicrosoftCorporation selling [BASIC
] interpreters for various machines. Even
the first [PC]s had it in [ROM], waiting to be activated by an __INT 18__ instruction. ''
(I remember trying it in [DOS]'s debug program, and the machine would lock up saying "no BASIC ROM installed" or something. Sad..
)'' Ever since
, MicrosoftCorporation
's strategic products have been accompanied by
ever evolving, ever less [BASIC]-like dialects of the language. You have probably heard of VisualBasic, which is only the latest (series of) rendition(s)
.
-[2
] ''"It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that
[[sic
] have had prior exposure to BASIC; as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration
."'
' -- Dijkstra
+There is no use for
[BASIC
] on
[Linux
]. If you you think you want [BASIC], then you
'd probably be happier with [Python] and a good learn
-Python textbook.
--
----
-CategoryProgrammingLanguages
+----
+CategoryProgrammingLanguages, CategoryDeprecatedProgrammingLanguages
