BASIC computer language turns 40

The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | April 30, 2004 | J.M. Hirsch The Associated Press

[RadioAstronomer]

Nice pic. The very first command I ever sent to a satellite in orbit was on one of those. :-)

An ASR-35 Teletype connected to an Hp-2114 minicomputer.

[RadioAstronomer]

A VIC-20 was the first computer I owned. I was glad to be able to get $40 for it when I upgraded!

Mine was a home built S-100 using an 8-bit 8080 processor interfaced to an ASR-33 Teletype for a terminal.

[RadioAstronomer]

Strangely enough, I became an accomplished Z80 assembler programmer because I was frustrated by my TRS-80's lame BASIC only allowed two-character variable names, while the assembler let you use a whopping 6 characters. I actually found it easier to write programs in assembler for most uses than in MS BASIC.

That is WAY cool! :-)

[jimt]

With the advance into 32-bit programming and with the gross advance in computer speeds, a modern BASIC would be a killer application.

VB pretty much fills that need.

I still use the latest and greatest of MS's 16 bit BASIC, BASIC 7.1 PDS, for data crunching. On a 200 mhz Pentium it screams through tedious tasks with dramatic speed. I spend zero time on user interface for many of these tasks - all processing power is devoted to the data handling. The screen simply reverts to whatever was on it prior to launching the editor until the program finishes. Then it says "Press any key to continue..."

PDS 7.1 takes advantage of expanded memory (remember that?) for array and string handling, has a neat database file engine called ISAM handling files up to 132 megabytes (remember when most hard drives weren't that big?) and can easily interface with C or assembler subroutines (functions).

At least two guys wrote some really cool add-on functions for the system, one in all assembler, one with some in assembler and some BASIC.

[jimt]

It doesn't hurt that there are also oodles of RAM left over for RAM drives either...saves wear and tear on the HDD.

[Proud_texan]

Actually I thought it was older than that! Also had fun with the same languages with the exception of Fortran, never used it in any of the shops I worked in.

I was rooting around the other day and found one of those big plastic paper clips, the kind you might have used on a print out, that advertised "jumbo memory boards" with a whopping 32k on 'em.

As I recall it was a highlight of one of Jim Warren's SF Computer Fairs.

Ah, memory of both kinds.

[Proud_texan]

Wow, hadn't thought of LISP in a long time.

Reminds me of all the languages that didn't make it (as far as I know, might just be the company I keep); SNOBOL, PL/1, Forth, Modula-2 and Pascal.

Others?

[Redleg Duke]

Oh, my! I remember using BASIC on an Apple IIe with a breadboard to make an automatic board tester!

[eggman]

Wrote my first BASIC programs on one of those in high school. Paper tape storage and an acoustic coupler 300 baud modem.

[js1138]

placemarker

[krb]

That is the TS/1000, which had 2k of memory.

The original Sinclair sold in the UK only had 1k.

[Prov1322]

Ah, the memories. First used BASIC at the Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) Lab in 1975 with an IBM Selectric as the display! Graphics? What's that?

[6ppc]

10 PRINT "JOHN F KERRY'S POSITION ON (insert favorite here)"

20 PRINT "FLIP"

30 PRINT "FLOP"

40 GOTO 20

[Rebelbase]

No, 1000 meant 1k. You had to buy an add-on memory unit to get it to 2K.

I remember well because I wrote a program for work that I had to edit short because I ran out of memory.