The BASIC programming language completes 50 years.

Code:

10 let i = 1
20 if i = 50 then print "Happy 50th Anniversary BASIC" else goto 40
30 goto 60
40 i = i + 1
50 goto 20
60 exit
run

During the times when programming was mainly for engineers and scientists with languages such as FORTRAN and Algol around, BASIC is the first language designed for laymen and for the average user as well as the language that actually made the early PCs and Apple computers popular for the general everyday consumers and encouraged them to utilize computers for their personal purposes as opposed as a device meant for scientists. BASIC has now completed 50 years and marks a milestone in personal computing.

I don't know how many of you know about BASIC, but BASIC is the language that actually got me into programming. I learned BASIC in class 5th and continued to code in it till class 10th. It was part of our school syllabus since class 6th. Learning that BASIC has completed 50 years brings back so many memories of school.

From the Darthmouth college website :

At 4 a.m. on May 1, 1964, in the basement of College Hall, Professor John Kemeny and a student programmer simultaneously typed RUN on neighboring terminals. When they both got back correct answers to their simple programs, time-sharing and BASIC were born.

Kemeny, who later became Dartmouth's 13th president, Professor Tom Kurtz, and a number of undergraduate students worked together to revolutionize computing with the introduction of time-sharing and the BASIC programming language. Their innovations made computing accessible to all Dartmouth students and faculty, and soon after, to people across the nation and the world.

This year, Dartmouth marked 50 years of BASIC with a day of events on Wednesday, April 30. The celebration recognized the enduring impact of BASIC, showcased innovation in computing at Dartmouth today, and imagined what the next 50 years might hold.

References :

BASIC, the 50-Year-Old Computer Programming Language for Regular People
How Steve Wozniak Wrote BASIC for the Original Apple From Scratch
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC
*www.dartmouth.edu/basicfifty/

i learned about BASIC in class 5th-6th i guess but can't recall how much though.

^ same here.

People don't really realize the importance of BASIC in the history of PCs. BASIC is what allowed the common public to operate computers. When PC gaming had not yet caught on, programmers used to share code for games written in BASIC with each other and others used to type the code to play it. It was almost an operating system and every IBM PC used to have it before MS-DOS came along.

If BASIC was not around, we'd not have Visual Basic, which derives almost all of its syntax from BASIC.

I learned QBASIC in 5th which is somewhat derived from BASIC (i think)

QBASIC was a derivative of BASIC made by Microsoft for MS-DOS. It stands for Quick BASIC since it does not use the line number convention that the original BASIC uses.

It is also the basis for the conventions used in Visual Basic.

DeSmOnD dAvId said:

Feeling nostalgic

looks like most studied programming in their early childhood. I started studying BASIC along with html on my 8th/9th standard lol.

A

Java is the best programming language.

What got me into Embedded programing during early 2000 was this *en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_Stamp , I haven't used it, but it was a inspiration to take up embedded programming.

Ahsan558 said:
Java is the best programming language.

Java is slow as hell and has many security issues.

- - - Updated - - -

RCuber said:
What got me into Embedded programing during early 2000 was this *en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_Stamp , I haven't used it, but it was a inspiration to take up embedded programming.

Cool. Basic has been ported to so many devices that even Atari 2600 consoles had a cartridge with BASIC on it.

C

Wave of Nostalgia ...Takes me back to my school days when we were taught BASIC .

If any of you want to try, there is an online BASIC interpreter here : *www.quitebasic.com/

I learned BASIC when I was very young.

Then I made a small game in QBASIC where an O used to repeat from left to right and I had to score a goal. The goal posts used to remain static and I had to score. Simple game.

^^ Showoff!! :mrgreen:

C

There have many programming language. And I think who have the knowledge of c and c++ they can learn other programming language easily.

clipping path said:
There have many programming language. And I think who have the knowledge of c and c++ they can learn other programming language easily.

No ****, Sherlock.

C

I learn about C, C++ and I think this is the basic programming language.

clipping path said:
I learn about C, C++ and I think this is the basic programming language.

You will have to explain that to me.

You mean this is the BASIC programming language or do you mean that C/C++ are basic programming languages?

DeSmOnD dAvId said:
You will have to explain that to me.

You mean this is the BASIC programming language or do you mean that C/C++ are basic programming languages?

Lol. I think he don't know about BASIC.

M

It was in our syllabus too.
learnt it from 6th till 10th
it was in the end of class 10th that i realised that it isn't even used.
the language is very easy. loved it. but no use, had to go the semicolon way