BASIC
From Maze
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Unquestionably, an important aspect of 10 PRINT is that it is written in a particular programming language, BASIC, which itself has an interesting cultural and technical history. The first version of BASIC was developed by two professors for use in teaching in a liberal arts college; it became operational in 1964 and was freely shared by its creators, leading to its use in high schools among other contexts. By that time, general-purpose computers had been programmed for about two decades and high-level languages (of which BASIC is one example) had been in widespread use for a decade. While BASIC has distinguishing features, it also continues the history of high-level languages, particularly Fortran and Algol. | Unquestionably, an important aspect of 10 PRINT is that it is written in a particular programming language, BASIC, which itself has an interesting cultural and technical history. The first version of BASIC was developed by two professors for use in teaching in a liberal arts college; it became operational in 1964 and was freely shared by its creators, leading to its use in high schools among other contexts. By that time, general-purpose computers had been programmed for about two decades and high-level languages (of which BASIC is one example) had been in widespread use for a decade. While BASIC has distinguishing features, it also continues the history of high-level languages, particularly Fortran and Algol. | ||
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BASIC (along with COBOL) seems to be one of the major whipping boys among programming languages. Inextricably associated with Microsoft and that bane of structured programmers, GOTO, it 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 21st century remember BASIC fondly - as they should. The language was a popular success, worked well for small programs that tested the possibilities of computing, and fostered creativity and innovation by new categories of computer users. | BASIC (along with COBOL) seems to be one of the major whipping boys among programming languages. Inextricably associated with Microsoft and that bane of structured programmers, GOTO, it 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 21st century remember BASIC fondly - as they should. The language was a popular success, worked well for small programs that tested the possibilities of computing, and fostered creativity and innovation by new categories of computer users. | ||
| − | Outline | + | === Outline (to be replaced) === |
| − | * History of BASIC | ||
| − | ** Place within the history of high-level programming languages | ||
| − | ** Dartmouth BASIC | ||
| − | ** Microsoft, BASIC for the Altair (their first product), and Microsoft BASICs | ||
| − | ** C64 BASIC | ||
| − | ** Variation in BASIC dialects on contemporaneous machines | ||
| − | ** The role of BASIC today | ||
* BASIC technical topics introduced through their inclusion in the program of study | * BASIC technical topics introduced through their inclusion in the program of study | ||
