BASIC - the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing

[Doctor Phibes]

@jon-nyc said in BASIC - the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing:

Literally me

I did the same thing when I was supposed to be learning Fortran 77 on a university mainframe, hence using up my extremely meager allotment of usage credits at a stroke.

[Mik]

@Axtremus said in BASIC - the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing:

My favorite BASIC feature is GOTO.

COBOL has it. Use it at peril of your employment.

It’s actually not that bad, but it encourages lazy coding. You should never use it to do anything but go to a paragraph exit. I’ve used ON GOTO to control focus on different form fields and it worked well.

[LuFins Dad]

In 1989, my uncle saw I was the only kid in the generation that stood a chance to get ahead, so passed on a gift that he was given as the President of his Union. It was a little pocket computer. Nothing serious by today’s standards, but it could run basic and had some memory to it. It basically looked like a scientific calculator with an alphabet keyboard as well. The most sophisticated thing that it ever did was record all of the formulas that I thought I would need for my physics final. The weird thing? The repetition that was necessary to enter those formulas along with the huge pain in the ass that was necessary to access them kinda made me memorize them and I never used it except as a calculator, which was allowed.

[Mik]

@jon-nyc said in BASIC - the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing:

Literally me

Us too, except the commands we had this n00b put in in Basic caused the printer to endlessly advance the printer paper a page. Luckily, he did not rat us out.

[mark]

I did basically the same thing with my brother at the Apple II except we made an inch worm in graphics mode, move across the screen starting at the top and moving to the next row when it hit the border.

[jon-nyc]

When I say literally me it includes the age reference. I turned 12 in 1980, in September when the school year started.

[LuFins Dad]

@jon-nyc said in BASIC - the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing:

When I say literally me it includes the age reference. I turned 12 in 1980, in September when the school year started.

Man, you’re old.

[Copper]

@Axtremus said in BASIC - the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing:

GOTO

B DO1
BCT R4,DO1
BCTR R4,R0
BR R14

same thing

[Mik]

If you know how to code assembler, yeah.

[George K]

You guys really need to get a room.

[Mik]

Nah. We just need register 14.

[George K]

@Mik said in BASIC - the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing:

Nah. We just need register 14.

Thank you, I think, for proving my point.