BASIC

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The step was seen in so-called "second generation programming langauges," which are assembly languages, still used in rare cases today. Assembly allows the use of mnemonics for operators such as LDA ("load accumulator"), JMP ("jump"), and INC ("increment memory") to stand in for the less easily read underlying numbers. EDSAC sported the first assembler in 1949. [http://liveforsinging.com/categoryA/language_history/assembly_language_history.html] Although cryptic compared to a high-level language such as BASIC, an assembler program is nevertheless much more comprehensible than a machine language program, which is just a sequence of numbers. While assembly is still used today in embedded systems, low-level programming, and the demoscene, there are usually significant disadvantages to programming at this level. Programming in assembly highlights technical details of platforms and the transfer of values between memory locations and registers. Higher-level languages allow the programmer to concentrate on other matters, such as solving mathematical and scientific problems or mapping the program to business processes.

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To reach a level of programming more appropriate for these tasks, particularly the mathematical and scientific ones, FORTRAN (Formula Translation) was specified in 1954 and first implemented in 1957. To address the business side, COBOL was specified in 1959 and implemented in 1960. Both of these languages allowed even more intelligible code. But both were also developed for the context of batch processing, for use with stacks of punched cards. The creators of BASIC aimed to develop a programming language for the next computing revolution, one that would allow numerous users interactive access to a system simultaneously: Time-sharing.

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To reach a level of programming more appropriate for these tasks, particularly the mathematical and scientific ones, FORTRAN (Formula Translation) was specified in 1954 and first implemented in 1957. To address the business side, COBOL was specified in 1959 and implemented in 1960. Both of these languages allowed even more intelligible code. But both were also developed for the context of batch processing, for use with stacks of punched cards -- particularly, for IBM's 1928 punched cards that had 80 columns, the same number of columns that standard printers and terminals had. (The Commodore 64's 80-column logical line, which appears as two 40-column lines on the screen, is one legacy of this early material medium for computing.) Programs written in early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN were specific to the punched card in certain ways: COBOL reserved columns 1-6 for the line number and column 7 for a continuation mark if the card's code ran on from the previous one. FORTRAN was similar, with columns 1-5 indicating the statement number. "Comments" (usually the program name) went in columns 73-80 in both languages; a "C" in the first column indicated that the whole FORTRAN card was to be considered a comment. Unless one wrote a one-liner, a COBOL or FORTRAN program would manifest itself as a stack, often a massive one, of punched cards, which had to be punched on a keypunch machine and fed into a card reader by an operator. Line numbers were of great importance if someone dropped the stack of cards and they had to be put back into order.

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The creators of BASIC aimed to develop a programming language for the next computing revolution, one that would allow numerous users interactive access to a system simultaneously: Time-sharing.

== Dartmouth BASIC and Time-Sharing Minicomputers ==

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 The step was seen in so-called "second generation programming langauges," which are assembly languages, still used in rare cases today. Assembly allows the use of mnemonics for operators such as LDA ("load accumulator"), JMP ("jump"), and INC ("increment memory") to stand in for the less easily read underlying numbers. EDSAC sported the first assembler in 1949. [http://liveforsinging.com/categoryA/language_history/assembly_language_history.html] Although cryptic compared to a high-level language such as BASIC, an assembler program is nevertheless much more comprehensible than a machine language program, which is just a sequence of numbers. While assembly is still used today in embedded systems, low-level programming, and the demoscene, there are usually significant disadvantages to programming at this level. Programming in assembly highlights technical details of platforms and the transfer of values between memory locations and registers. Higher-level languages allow the programmer to concentrate on other matters, such as solving mathematical and scientific problems or mapping the program to business processes.
-To reach a level of programming more appropriate for these tasks, particularly the mathematical and scientific ones, FORTRAN (Formula Translation) was specified in 1954 and first implemented in 1957. To address the business side, COBOL was specified in 1959 and implemented in 1960. Both of these languages allowed even more intelligible code. But both were also developed for the context of batch processing, for use with stacks of punched cards. The creators of BASIC aimed to develop a programming language for the next computing revolution, one that would allow numerous users interactive access to a system simultaneously: Time-sharing.
+To reach a level of programming more appropriate for these tasks, particularly the mathematical and scientific ones, FORTRAN (Formula Translation) was specified in 1954 and first implemented in 1957. To address the business side, COBOL was specified in 1959 and implemented in 1960. Both of these languages allowed even more intelligible code. But both were also developed for the context of batch processing, for use with stacks of punched cards -- particularly, for IBM's 1928 punched cards that had 80 columns, the same number of columns that standard printers and terminals had. (The Commodore 64's 80-column logical line, which appears as two 40-column lines on the screen, is one legacy of this early material medium for computing.) Programs written in early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN were specific to the punched card in certain ways: COBOL reserved columns 1-6 for the line number and column 7 for a continuation mark if the card's code ran on from the previous one. FORTRAN was similar, with columns 1-5 indicating the statement number. "Comments" (usually the program name) went in columns 73-80 in both languages; a "C" in the first column indicated that the whole FORTRAN card was to be considered a comment. Unless one wrote a one-liner, a COBOL or FORTRAN program would manifest itself as a stack, often a massive one, of punched cards, which had to be punched on a keypunch machine and fed into a card reader by an operator. Line numbers were of great importance if someone dropped the stack of cards and they had to be put back into order.
+The creators of BASIC aimed to develop a programming language for the next computing revolution, one that would allow numerous users interactive access to a system simultaneously: Time-sharing.
 == Dartmouth BASIC and Time-Sharing Minicomputers ==