[Coco] Happy Birthday BASIC!

Tue May 2 18:37:55 EDT 2017

Oops, I looked into RSTS BASIC. My memory failed me :-)

Actually, I used RSTS/E, I still remember the pip command.

There were two versions of BASIC. The first was a simpler dialect that was very close to BASICs found in personal computers. I did some programming in this language.

If curious, have a look at the BASIC Plus guide here:

http://elvira.stacken.kth.se/rstsdoc/rsts-doc-v92/v9.2-v5-a-basic-plus_language_manual.pdf

The second BASIC was more advanced and was the one that I meant to reference in my previous post. Sorry about that :-) Salvador

      From: Salvador Garcia via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
 To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com> 
Cc: Salvador Garcia <salvadorgarciav at yahoo.com>
 Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 5:33 PM
 Subject: Re: [Coco] Happy Birthday BASIC!

RSTS Basic was its own dialect. It had various extensions that allowed it to call system routines. While it was BASIC, I would not say that it was in the traditional sense as all of the BASICs for personal computers were. Salvador

      From: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com>
 To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com> 
 Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 5:13 PM
 Subject: Re: [Coco] Happy Birthday BASIC!

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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>>
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