notes-computer-programming-programmingLanguageDesign-prosAndCons-basic

good article: http://time.com/69316/basic/

" The first version of BASIC had 14 commands, all with straightforward names and syntax that made sense:

    PRINT output text and numbers to the Teletype (and, later on, displayed it on the screens of time-sharing terminals and PCs);
    LET told the computer to perform calculations and assign the result to a variable, in statements such as LET C = (A*2.5)+B;
    IF and THEN let the program determine if a statement was true, vital for anything involving decision-making;
    FOR and NEXT let a program run in loops;
    GOTO let a program branch to another numbered line within itself;
    END, which was required in Dartmouth BASIC, told the computer that it had reached the program’s conclusion.

Then there was INPUT, a command that let a BASIC program accept alphanumeric characters typed in by a user. It wasn’t among the initial 14, arriving only in the third revision of the language in 1966. But when it did, it made it possible to write far more interactive programs. Without INPUT, BASIC was mostly for solving math problems and doing simple simulations; with it, the language could do almost anything. Including play games, which many people came to consider as the language’s defining purpose. " -- http://time.com/69316/basic/

"

Statements

There were fifteen statement types in the original BASIC.

LET Introduces the assignment statement, and is required PRINT Provides free-form output END Is required

READ Assigns values to variables from internal data DATA Introduces internal data

GOTO Does just that, transfers to another line-numbered statement IF Gives a conditional GOTO

FOR Introduces the looping construct NEXT Terminates the looping construct

GOSUB Does a GOTO to a subroutine RETURN Returns from the end of the subroutine

DEF Introduces programmer-defined functions DIM Allows dimensioning arrays REM Provides comments STOP Same as reaching the END statement

In addition, the slightly more recent version of BASIC that we are using includes the INPUT statement. " -- http://www.dartmouth.edu/basicfifty/commands.html

http://www.dartmouth.edu/basicfifty/basicmanual_1964.pdf

" Kemeny and Kurtz's True BASIC (mentioned in the Time magazine article) is kept alive and sold as a modern programming system by someone at truebasic.com. The language is deficient (e.g., no boolean or equivalent type of values, only conditions within IF, WHILE and UNTIL), the IDE (which is the only way to compile and run programs) is awkward and, at least as of several years ago, rather buggy. Oh, and the product is ridiculously pricey." -- http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4939