Re: BASIC turns 60

On Wed, 01 May 2024 22:04:50 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 GOTO 10
RUN

A mandatory program to be typed into any 8-bit PC sitting plugged in
but unattended on a store display.

Although I'd always use a ; at the end of line 10 just to fill out the
screen. And - depending on mood - I'd probably use something... erm,
less polite than 'hello world' ;-)

Do any of you remember this BASIC games too like Lemonade on Apple 2? ;)

I remember I played a bunch of programs written in BASIC. I don't
really remember any specifically that were written in BASIC.

For instance, I think the original "Ultima" game was coded in BASIC.
So too the original "Wizardry" game. Both were later ported to other
languages for performance reasons though, and I can't for the life of
me remember which version I played.

I do recall occasionally hitting system break and listing the code (or
trying to list the code). Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
When it did, I marveled at the complexity and tried my best to
understand at least SOME of what it was doing (usually
unsuccessfully).

But, in truth, my interest in computers was pretty sporadic until I
got my IBM PC/compatible* computer. By then BASIC was on its way out;
still a viable 'starter' language to learn the, erm, basics of
programming, but not really something you'd use to program anything
serious. I honestly don't even know if my first PC had BASIC in its
ROMs (although, given it /did/ have the 'no ROM BASIC found system
halted' message in its BIOS, it seems unlikely ;-)

Anyway, everyone knows LOGO was the truly superior language. It had
turtle graphics! ;-)







* written out just to avoid the '8-bits and Macs are PCs too!' crowd.
You know who you are ;-) ;-) ;-)