Easy-to-use programming language that drove Apple, IBM, and Commodore PCs debuted in 1964.
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The BASIC programming language turns 60
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My first coding experience was BASIC on a VIC-20 with cassette tape store. Memories...
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Texas Instruments TI-99/4A here with cassette drive connected to a 13" black and white tv.
edit: corrected model number format.
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TRS-80 Level I BASIC was my first. Three error messages: WHAT? (syntax), HOW? (overflow), and SORRY (out of memory).
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Man, I loved BASIC. For my final in Computer Science in HS we had to make a game in BASIC and print out the entire code. I made a Mortal Kombat type game (called Stick Fighter... basically different stick figures beating on each other) complete with fatalities and hidden characters. After I printed it out, it was the thickness of a phone book. Got an A+ though!
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Same, except we didn't have the datasette, so turning the computer off meant losing your program.
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Ah yes, my first programming language on trash-80.
I wouldn't go back tho. However, I would take Basic any day over Cobol. I'm getting really tired of migrating old code from the 70s.
I wouldn't go back tho. However, I would take Basic any day over Cobol. I'm getting really tired of migrating old code from the 70s.
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Same. I bought a set of two for nostalgia just last week. Lots of interesting mods available now, but it quickly turns your $50 retro brick into a $500 retro brick.
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Though not nearly as popular; VB.NET is as functional a development language as C# (indeed, both compile to the same intermediate code and there are only a handful of functional differences, such as VB's support of shadowed classes), and easier for a new person (who lacks experience in a C-style language) to read. I do know of some places that use it for professional development.
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A lot of programmers from my generation got started by learning Basic. The advent of the personal computer and Basic led many to which careers and go into programming.
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The age of basic was a great time to learn development.
I used to get magazines (Nibble) from my library which would go over a number of programs in detail with the basic source (and sometimes machine language).
I tried to use a online basic interpreter to show my 10 year old how awesome basic is but 1985 me vs 2022 him have different ideas of what's cool and what's not.
I used to get magazines (Nibble) from my library which would go over a number of programs in detail with the basic source (and sometimes machine language).
I tried to use a online basic interpreter to show my 10 year old how awesome basic is but 1985 me vs 2022 him have different ideas of what's cool and what's not.
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Fond memories of writing basic programs as a pre-teen on my TI-99/4A. We had a 19" color tv though
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Learned BASIC in Jr. High math class, connected to the (DEC??) computer at the High School via acoustic modem, programs entered on a teletype and saved to paper tape. Circa 1968.
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Ah BASIC back in school, where when we were supposed to be listening to the teacher and not doing anything I had a simple infinitely looping program running displaying on the screen. My friend thought he would be funny and halt the program. He missed and hit Print Screen instead.
Teacher: "Who's printing?"
Teacher: "Who's printing?"
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This is so cool! I just resurrected by parents' Apple IIc. Needed to replace some faulty RAM with some new (newly manufactured!) chips and it's running great so far. The disk drive can even read most of the pack-in floppies (intro software and a surprisingly full featured office suite, Apple Works).
I'm going through the BASIC intro software and have completed my very own PRINT loop program.
Thanks for the article Benj!
I'm going through the BASIC intro software and have completed my very own PRINT loop program.
Thanks for the article Benj!
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As a beginning coder in the late 80's I felt that moving from BASIC to FORTRAN and COBOL was an easy move. Whereas the move to ANSI C for the DoD in a job felt like a jump into an abyss where everything I knew had to be relearned. C is great but far from the other three in terms of ease of use.
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I remember my first excursions into programming using BASIC on an Acorn Atom, Acorn Electron, and BBC model B. IIRC the BBC he model B even let you switch to assembly language mid-program. Those experiences both fascinated me and convinced me that I'd never be a serious programmer, I just didn't have the right mindset.
I really need to get my 8-bit hardware out of the garage and set it up again.
I really need to get my 8-bit hardware out of the garage and set it up again.
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Self taught with Instant Basic on an 2nd gen Altair with 4k Ram. (Attache 8800).
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My fondest memory of BASIC is when I was in middle school computer class and I made a program that looked like I had logged/hacked into the "Central Trust International Exchange" (I had recently seen the movie Wargames). This was in a room full of Apple II computers plugged into a very long square metal tube of power outlets/surge protectors.
When the teacher saw what I was doing, she freaked out, thinking I was going to get the school raided by the FBI or something and pulled the plug on the entire row of computers, wiping out not only my program but all of the work of the other kids in that row.
These computers were not even networked, much less connected to a modem.
I ended up with a detention and a call to my father, and was even further ostracized by most of the other kids for being a huge nerd and screwing up their assignment, but the other two nerdy kids in my class also thought it was hilarious.
When the teacher saw what I was doing, she freaked out, thinking I was going to get the school raided by the FBI or something and pulled the plug on the entire row of computers, wiping out not only my program but all of the work of the other kids in that row.
These computers were not even networked, much less connected to a modem.
I ended up with a detention and a call to my father, and was even further ostracized by most of the other kids for being a huge nerd and screwing up their assignment, but the other two nerdy kids in my class also thought it was hilarious.
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DeschutesCore
Ars Scholae Palatinae
TI-99/4A here as well. Mr. Bojangles was my first "long" project from the manuals, and it was the first time I discovered that nothing is saved and the tape adapter cable was a lifesaver. Damn good times.
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My first was Atari BASIC on an Atari 800XL. I have memories of typing the "Monster Maker" from Dr. C. Wacko's Miracle Guide To Designing and Programming Your Own Atari Computer Arcade Games that was used to easily make 8x8 sprites or "character graphics" by POKEing to replace the character set in RAM.
I don't know if I'd call them fond memories. I remember my mother getting annoyed by the chirp the computer made every time you typed a letter and I learned a POKE command to turn it off, so that I could keep the volume on the TV the same for when I switched over the cartoons.
I don't know if I'd call them fond memories. I remember my mother getting annoyed by the chirp the computer made every time you typed a letter and I learned a POKE command to turn it off, so that I could keep the volume on the TV the same for when I switched over the cartoons.
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Applesoft BASIC on a II+ was my first programming language. My first actually useful program was written there. In fourth grade, for a while we had homework to write out multiplication tables all the way up to 12x12. After doing this by hand a few times, Young Me said ‘screw this’; a couple of loops and the nice easy redirect output to printer capability meant homework went a lot faster…
Teacher thought I was manually typing out the tables. My parents thought I learned more figuring out how to write the program than the rote memorization, so they were good with it.
Teacher thought I was manually typing out the tables. My parents thought I learned more figuring out how to write the program than the rote memorization, so they were good with it.
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Learned BASIC from that exact manual, usually to write my own little games since I could afford very few of them myself at the time. And I kept plugging away at little BASIC stuff right up until I learned Pascal, whose block-structured code just felt like a better way to do everything than the typical blob of spaghetti most everything BASIC would devolve into over time. It was one of those neat things that served its purpose for many years, and then I just sortof grew out of and haven't touched it since.
Though another important historical factor at the time is that when most home computers had incompatible architectures, having some sort of BASIC dialect available provided some level of portability. Like the code examples from my "Make Adventure Games on Your Computer" book weren't specific to any particular system and could be typed in and work almost anywhere.
Though another important historical factor at the time is that when most home computers had incompatible architectures, having some sort of BASIC dialect available provided some level of portability. Like the code examples from my "Make Adventure Games on Your Computer" book weren't specific to any particular system and could be typed in and work almost anywhere.
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The buety about the days of basic, was that it just worked, no worrying about environmental variables, libraries, configuration files and settings. You could literally type sonething in from the magazines or tutorials of the day and they worked.
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my dad had given me some books on C to try to get me to go from playing video games to something more productive ("why don't you make your own video games")
but it wasn't until my middle-school math textbooks, which I discovered had text for BASIC programs in the back (like for rolling dice) where I really "got it" in terms of programming to get stuff done, versus just abstract small programs that just mess around with some pointer arithmetic. (maybe it was QBASIC, don't remember) so I have a soft spot for BASIC for that.
on the other hand, my first job was like a B2B insurance company and they did an immense amount of stuff in VisualBasic and I grew to really hate VisualBasic in particular.
but it wasn't until my middle-school math textbooks, which I discovered had text for BASIC programs in the back (like for rolling dice) where I really "got it" in terms of programming to get stuff done, versus just abstract small programs that just mess around with some pointer arithmetic. (maybe it was QBASIC, don't remember) so I have a soft spot for BASIC for that.
on the other hand, my first job was like a B2B insurance company and they did an immense amount of stuff in VisualBasic and I grew to really hate VisualBasic in particular.
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It was 1971 and I was 12. The school had dial-up access to some time-shared system at some local company on Long Island (east of NYC). I was one of the 3 or 4 students in my junior high school that used one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33 - we wrote simple BASIC programs (games mostly, as I recall) and used paper tape for storage. I remember cannibalizing a desktop pencil sharpener as a way of making it easier to wind / unwind the rolls of programs.
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Me three, though mine was connected to a color TV. I was reminded about that Mr. Bojangles program for the first time in years and years, just the weekend before last.
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Same! At some point we acquired a 5 1/4" floppy disk drive, but it was in reality a massive downgrade from the tape. It was exquisitely sensitive to static shocks, which had the side-effect of corrupting one's saved data. I can't tell you how frustrating that was, given that I was still struggling just to learn how to program in the first place. Still, fond memories of TI Extended BASIC itself...
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I learned BASIC when I was about 6 years old. I programmed on the Atari800 (XL or XE maybe) and on some old IBM compatibles back when we used to call them that.
I made simple games with jumping smiley faces
<- that yellow guy became the main character of anything I made. Little platformers, and other things. I remember having to learn on my own how to program the basic jump and fall mechanics using variables (T would be 0 if neither falling nor jumping, 1 for jumping, 3 for falling, and I'd have J increase until it reached 5, which would then trigger the change from jump to fall). I had the screen refresh every frame of animation instead of simply redrawing only the changes because I didn't know how to design otherwise.
Later, as my dad's computer got faster and faster, I needed a way to adjust speed, so I added a slowdown feature that could be adjusted with keys.
On the Atari, I created a joystick tester to test all our old joysticks to see which worked in what ways (oftentimes, a single direction, like up-right, would break), and my older brother was impressed with the fact that I conceived of such a thing and made it when I was ~7.
Well, those are my BASIC memories. It introduced me to the basics of how coding worked as a concept, and what kind of effort goes into game development. I lost interest in programming as I got older, but I'm glad I was introduced to it when I was in kindergarten or first grade (I forget which, but I was an autistic kid who could read at an early age).
I made simple games with jumping smiley faces
<- that yellow guy became the main character of anything I made. Little platformers, and other things. I remember having to learn on my own how to program the basic jump and fall mechanics using variables (T would be 0 if neither falling nor jumping, 1 for jumping, 3 for falling, and I'd have J increase until it reached 5, which would then trigger the change from jump to fall). I had the screen refresh every frame of animation instead of simply redrawing only the changes because I didn't know how to design otherwise.Later, as my dad's computer got faster and faster, I needed a way to adjust speed, so I added a slowdown feature that could be adjusted with keys.
On the Atari, I created a joystick tester to test all our old joysticks to see which worked in what ways (oftentimes, a single direction, like up-right, would break), and my older brother was impressed with the fact that I conceived of such a thing and made it when I was ~7.
Well, those are my BASIC memories. It introduced me to the basics of how coding worked as a concept, and what kind of effort goes into game development. I lost interest in programming as I got older, but I'm glad I was introduced to it when I was in kindergarten or first grade (I forget which, but I was an autistic kid who could read at an early age).
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I learned BASIC and then LOGO and then C, early C++, and on to over two dozen other languages over the years. I'll always appreciate the easy onramp that BASIC gave me as a grade schooler and the love of computers it fostered in me.
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My father also gave me a book on C (I vaguely recall it was named something like "ANSI Standard C") when I was in middle school for mostly the same reason, and I remember getting totally stuck on the idea of a variable. I remember asking my dad what it meant and he gave me examples from algebra (dad was not a programmer) which I also had not yet studied. Now that I am an actual computer scientist, I can appreciate how that advice was a bit off the mark, especially as it related to C.
Anyway, I remember eagerly awaiting my first algebra class and being one of the first ones to raise my hand when the teacher asked if we had questions. I asked her how variables could help me write programs and if she could explain pointers to me. All I got in response was a completely blank look. Sadly, I didn't figure these things out myself for another couple of years...
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This is how I got started with computers writing G.W. Basic code on a TI99-4 This was around 1984 still in high school.
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"As part of the deal to buy the GE computer, the undergraduates built the operating system in BASIC for General Electric's version of time-sharing." It's hard to imagine writing disk controllers, etc., in BASIC, and I don't think that's actually what was done; the Dartmouth Time Sharing System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Time_Sharing_System was probably written in assembler, as would have been common in the early 60s.
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