The Birth of BASIC.
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The Birth of BASIC.
youtube: Birth of BASIC = birth of TSS Time Sharing System :-)
youtube: The basics of BASIC, the programming language of the 1980s
Joshy
youtube: The basics of BASIC, the programming language of the 1980s
Joshy
Last edited by D.J.Peters on Jan 10, 2019 11:54, edited 1 time in total.
Re: The Birth of BASIC.
Really cool stuff ... start is slightly before my Time.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
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Re: The Birth of BASIC.
I first saw BASIC in 1972, by which time it was 8 years old. I was reading for a Masters in Numerical Analysis at the University of Dundee and had been using Algol 60 and Fortran II. I took one look at BASIC and thought "Oh, I don't think so - NEXT!". It has come on a bit since then. <smile>. Mind you so has code editing. I used to spend a lot of time hand punching holes in cards or splicing tape with cello-tape. I remember an IBM 1130 'going down' after someone bought some cheap cards which were slightly longer than the specification allowed. The chafing created a fine dust which got into the drive. Knuckles were wrapped. They may have been told to stay will IBM as no one ever got sacked for buying IBM - but I may be wrong.<Ha, ha>
Re: The Birth of BASIC.
Thanks for sharing the video. Very interesting. It's easy to criticize this classic BASIC as Dijkstra so famously did many years ago, especially when one was already familiar with other more complicated, and more powerful, languages like Algo 60 and Fortran but Dartmouth did some amazing things to bring computers to the masses. Setting up remote terminals in high schools was both generous and genius. Fascinating story.
Re: The Birth of BASIC.
great video!
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Re: The Birth of BASIC.
There are so many information in 38 minutes, I saw it a second time without to have boredom :-)
Joshy
Joshy
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Re: The Birth of BASIC.
That brought back memories. I actually used the Dartmouth time-sharing BASIC in 1965 while I was working for General Motors. Little did I know that, over 50 years later, I'd still be using BASIC as my main development language. :-)
Rod
Rod
Re: The Birth of BASIC.
pretty amazing.... I guess I was part of the 'second wave', I used basic in the late 70s on apple ][, trs-80,c-64,sinclair z80,Dec PDP-11.... The first thing I checked for when getting a new computer is what version of Basic it had.... nice to see ya 'old timers' still around and teachin' us 'young uns' your talents!Boris the Old wrote:That brought back memories. I actually used the Dartmouth time-sharing BASIC in 1965 while I was working for General Motors. Little did I know that, over 50 years later, I'd still be using BASIC as my main development language. :-)
Rod
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Re: The Birth of BASIC.
added: The basics of BASIC, the programming language of the 1980s
Joshy
Joshy
Re: The Birth of BASIC.
Interesting how (at the beginning of the video) they stress the importance of Basic as a portable programming language.
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Re: The Birth of BASIC.
Joshy
In the late 1970's, when I started my own software business, I was writing multi-user business applications for Data General mini-computers using Business Basic. Far more advanced than the Basic used on micro-computers in the 1980's. And although I've programmed in many languages over the years, Basic is still my language of choice.
Rod
In the late 1970's, when I started my own software business, I was writing multi-user business applications for Data General mini-computers using Business Basic. Far more advanced than the Basic used on micro-computers in the 1980's. And although I've programmed in many languages over the years, Basic is still my language of choice.
Rod
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Re: The Birth of BASIC.
The critizism of Djikistra was only turned against using BASIC for learning. I think I understand what he wished to say. As BASIC in general will hide internal memory management, students will understand nothing to it if they stick on BASIC too exclusively. However, Freebasic is not subject to this critizism, because we have all the pointers and in depth memory management and control that one may need. And for myself, that's why I came to Freebasic first. Because it's true, VB, even VB.net hides most of the internal mechanisms, and we get quickly stuck if we need performance or fine tuning.caseih wrote: It's easy to criticize this classic BASIC as Dijkstra so famously did many years ago
Re: The Birth of BASIC.
Dijkstra criticised many languages with equally harsh words. He (and many others) targeted BASIC specifically for its use of GOTO and spaghetti code - and that's fine for me. Dijkstra was right.
However, about 30 years ago BASIC had already overcome the GOTO phase, and we had if elseif endif, repeat...until, while..wend, etc - everything that's needed for structured programming, including user-defined types.
Re memory management, that is an awful habit from the C/C++ clan. A reasonable BASIC doesn't need "memory management", it's built in and automatic.
However, about 30 years ago BASIC had already overcome the GOTO phase, and we had if elseif endif, repeat...until, while..wend, etc - everything that's needed for structured programming, including user-defined types.
Re memory management, that is an awful habit from the C/C++ clan. A reasonable BASIC doesn't need "memory management", it's built in and automatic.
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Re: The Birth of BASIC.
You are probably right in general, people making a life with programming are probably the happiest in the world if they just find the library they need and use it without more testing or trouble required. However I still think that for the people still studying computer science, a language that plunges deep enough in the machine is absolutly needed. I always thought it was the purpose of the word of Djikstra, because I love Gotos instructions :)jj2007 wrote: Re memory management, that is an awful habit from the C/C++ clan. A reasonable BASIC doesn't need "memory management", it's built in and automatic.
Re: The Birth of BASIC.
(The exact quote btw seems to be:Tourist Trap wrote:
The critizism of Djikistra was only turned against using BASIC for learning. I think I understand what he wished to say. As BASIC in general will hide internal memory management, students will understand nothing to it if they stick on BASIC too exclusively.
)Edsger W Dijkstra wrote:It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration
I would rather think it was lack of structured programming. Basic was later heavily modified for structured programming (e.g. sub's with parameters like QB got instead of just gosub <linenr>), and removed the need for goto/gosub in most common scenario.
I don't think the quote thus applies to FB (or even QB, unless you forcedly stick to oldschool line based syntax)
E.W. Dijkstra was quite big on structured programming.