BASIC
From Maze
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(→Dartmouth BASIC and Time-Sharing Minicomputers) | (→Dartmouth BASIC and Time-Sharing Minicomputers) | ||
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Ironically, 10 PRINT highlights the failure of this transparency. The code makes little sense unless one knows the Commodore 64's idiosyncratic character set. There is no shielding the user from the operating system in 10 PRINT. Indeed, there is no escaping it. | Ironically, 10 PRINT highlights the failure of this transparency. The code makes little sense unless one knows the Commodore 64's idiosyncratic character set. There is no shielding the user from the operating system in 10 PRINT. Indeed, there is no escaping it. | ||
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| + | The original version of BASIC introduced another concept to programming that is readily apparent in 10 PRINT: the line number. Prior to BASIC, computing jobs were performed by batch processing. A program consisted of a stack of IBM keypunch cards, submitted to the computer. Multiple programs would be feed into the computer, which would then execute them one-by-one, printing out the results. When all of the programs had been run, another batch could be given to it. Any error in any keycard would result in an unexecutable program; debugging was a long and painful process. Line numbers solved the problem, or at least made it easier to pinpoint errors. An error in a program meant only the offending line had to be retyped, rather than an entire keycard repunched. | ||
== Altair BASIC and Microcomputers== | == Altair BASIC and Microcomputers== | ||
