[Coco] Happy Birthday BASIC!

[L. Curtis Boyle]

I used BASIC under RSTS on a PDP-11 decades ago. The disk arrays were quite powerful (almost a primitive form of virtual memory).

L. Curtis Boyle
curtisboyle at sasktel.net

TRS-80 Color Computer Games website
http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/coco_game_list.html



> On May 2, 2017, at 4:12 PM, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Borland had a Turbo BASIC compiler.  Other than Pascal the UCSD P-System
> had Fortran-77 and yes, BASIC.  The most common User Interface on the PDP-11
> under RSTS was --  BASIC.  The VAX had a BASIC compiler that had all the capabilites
> of most of the other languages and was used to write a lot of business software by
> real professionals.
> 
> BASIC was never really looked down on.  I used it on the IBM 4331, UNIVAC -1100 (both
> mainframes). I also used it on Prime Super Minis, VAX, PDP-11, various Unix systems.
> 
> And today, interpreted languages are much more common.  PERL, PHP, Python.  But
> now they call it "rapid prototyping".
> 
> bill
> 
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: Coco [coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] on behalf of Glen Hewlett [glen.hewlett at sympatico.ca]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 4:54 PM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Happy Birthday BASIC!
> 
> I don’t know if it’s just me but I had always felt that BASIC was looked down upon by most serious programmers in the 80’s and 90’s.  I always thought it was an awesome language and easy to write programs with.  Super quick development/test/debug times and easy to learn.
> 
> Maybe because of the name Beginner’s All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code had the name Beginner in it made it so that it was looked down at, I don’t know.  Sure there are more powerful languages but for general purpose programming on an old computer I think BASIC is awesome.
> 
> I’m still fighting with my Pacman transcode in 100% assembly, but I have written some programs in BASIC on the CoCo to help me convert the ROM graphics from the original hardware into something the CoCo 3 can use and it was a joy.  I also wrote some BASIC code to convert graphic sprites into compiled sprites and enjoyed the experience on the CoCo.
> 
> FYI - There is a compiler for QB for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android called QB64 that takes your BASIC program and compiles it into a super fast machine language program native to your computer.  I only mention it since Quick Basic is VERY similar to CoCo Basic and someone here might get a kick out of using it.  It can be found here: http://www.qb64.net/
> 
> Cheers,
> Glen
> 
>> On May 2, 2017, at 4:11 PM, Wayne Campbell <asa.rand at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> It is there, albeit as a brief allusion to the fact:
>> 
>> History -> Origin
>> 2nd paragraph
>> 3rd sentence reads:
>> 
>> "Wanting use of the language to become widespread, its designers made the
>> compiler available free of charge."
>> 
>> Wayne
>> 
>> On May 2, 2017 11:44 AM, "Salvador Garcia via Coco" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Something that I did not locate in that Wiki entry is that the original
>>> BASIC was a compiled language.
>>> 
>>> Seeing how many shunned BASIC because it was interpreted, I believe that
>>> this is an important item.
>>> 
>>> And if anyone feels nostalgic, you can still program like it is 1964 here:
>>> 
>>> http://www.vintageisthenewold.com/program-in-basic-like-it-is-1964/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Salvador
>>> 
>>> 
>>>     From: Frank Pittel <fpittel at gmail.com>
>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 11:10 AM
>>> Subject: [Coco] Happy Birthday BASIC!
>>> 
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC
>>> 
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