Re: BASIC turns 60

On 01/05/2024 22:16, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

 I'd wager that even if you don't know anything else about it, most
people have at least heard of the BASIC programming language. Designed
as an easy-to-use language, its comparatively lightweight footprint
paired well with the newest microcomputers of the 70s and 80s. It was
the de facto standard language for many PCs - in fact, for the longest
time, even IBM PC/Compatibles would try to boot to a BASIC interpreter
if no boot-sector was found on floppy or hard-drive, burning the
nonsensical "No ROM BASIC System Halted" message into many a PC-users
brain if there was a disk failure).
 In some ways BASIC was the Java of its time; a common language that
(more or less) ran on many different computers regardless of
hardware.* Many classic games were coded in BASIC, and -even as the
world slowly moved away from that language - many developer's first
steps (and games!) were made using BASIC. Microsoft's first product
was a BASIC interpreter; without it, they'd never have had the cash to
'create' their DOS operating system and we might still all be under
the thumb of IBM (and probably still using 16-bit processors. IBM
hated innovation). I myself have semi-fond memories of typing in BASIC
programs from some magazine into my 8-bit PC, and then struggling to
understand what the hell I was doing.
 Anyway, BASIC turned 60 today, with the first BASIC program being run
1 May 1964 in Dartmouth College. So let's all raise a glass to this
pioneer of computing that helped make the microcomputer industry the
success it is today.
 

That was my first try at programming (Specky 48k) when I was probably thirteen and the nice thing I found about it was it wasn't that difficult to use and it was helped by the were magazines with lots of examples of programs you could look at. I did later try Forth (too complex for me at the time) and ZX80 assembler. The later I code some very small functions which were really more examples that anything else but it never seemed worth the effort compared to the ease of Basic.
My next try at programming was when I started work with Coral 66 before quickly moving to Ada. The next step was almost by accident as a project really needed a couple of C programmers and as I had used it a little at University I was one of them. Boy was that a step learning curve to be actually be able to write real programs in it. The syntax was relativity easy to grasp but the fact that the language would allow you to do almost anything was hard. It also didn't help that at the time compilers were less than helpful with their error messages. The big hurdle though, getting my head around pointers until I had a lightbulb moment.
My favourite comment about C is it's a language with all the efficient of machine code with all the readability of machine code. Personally I have a love/hate relationship with it.