BASIC
From Maze
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While the heyday of the language did not last, interesting new versions of BASIC, sometimes radically reformulated, continued to appear. The creators of the original language introduced the structured True BASIC in 1983. In 1985, Microsoft's QuickBASIC offered several innovations and made line numbers optional. Microsoft's even more radically different Visual Basic saw widespread use in creating business applications. | While the heyday of the language did not last, interesting new versions of BASIC, sometimes radically reformulated, continued to appear. The creators of the original language introduced the structured True BASIC in 1983. In 1985, Microsoft's QuickBASIC offered several innovations and made line numbers optional. Microsoft's even more radically different Visual Basic saw widespread use in creating business applications. | ||
| − | Despite or because of its popularity, BASIC joins COBOL as one of the major programming language scapegoats. Inextricably associated with Microsoft and that bane of structured programmers, GOTO, the language is said to encourage the writing of spaghetti code, to be unbearably slow, and to be suitable only for children and amateurs. Yet many programmers in the early twenty-first century remember BASIC fondly. The language was a popular success, worked well for small programs that let people explore the possibilities of computing, and fostered creativity and innovation by new categories of computer users. | + | Despite or because of its popularity, BASIC has become a target of derision for many modern programmers. Inextricably associated with Microsoft and that bane of structured programmers, GOTO, the language is said to encourage the writing of spaghetti code, to be unbearably slow, and to be suitable only for children and amateurs. Yet many programmers in the early twenty-first century remember BASIC fondly. The language was a popular success, worked well for small programs that let people explore the possibilities of computing, and fostered creativity and innovation by new categories of computer users. |
== A Brief History of Programming == | == A Brief History of Programming == | ||
