Fifty Years of BASIC

[carlos]

Why BASIC was pushed aside by C????? for a good reason, C is a production language, from the beginning C was designed to be a language to write good code, (UNIX remember?) while BASIC  was designed to be a LEARNING language, hence it's simplicity,  when basic was chosen to be the pc language, it helped people learn programming without having to go to college to learn, but writing SERIOUS software on BASIC is out of the question, is akin to try to participate in a bicycle race with training wheels.  also, all the bad rap BASIC got from pros in the 70s and 80s stem from the fact that BASIC was a micro-computing phenomenon, it never was strong in the mainframe/minicomputer world, and the pro saw us with disdain, our machines as toys.

Also, that lots of commercial/open source software is bug ridden is not the fault of C is the bad programmers/unrealistic deadlines that that plague the industry these days.

[hutch--]

If I understand the main advantage of C/C++, its portability. Apart from scripting languages like JAVA and a few others, C is a binary compiler that has been ported to almost every form of hardware but its not always a competitor against a dedicated OS specific compiler or assembler. Back before 32 bit software was available I originally coded THE SDK style of software in C (not ++) in Microsoft C version 6 and it was a good tool that was very reliable. When they introduced C version 7 it was a broken pile of crap so I went on the hunt for a better compiler and ended up using GFA basic that was written in assembler which produce far better binary code than Microsoft C.

With the introduction of Win32 I tried out VC 1 but just did not like it as it was starting to introduce early C++ with all of the bloat and MFC junk so I looked around and found the early versions of PowerBASIC and I still use the later versions for many 32 bit apps today. I did not find a decent C compiler until VC98 but the best 32 bit version I found was VC2003 (VCTOOLKIT) which had very good libraries and produced efficient code. While my preferred development language is assembler, I do occasionally use C to test out C algos. Most of the C folks are ignorant of the development of BASIC as a language and still think its a kiddies level interpreter ALA 1980 but as they would not try and use a C compiler of 1980, neither do the basic folks use interpreted basic of 1980 either.

Best for best, basic comes in smaller than C due to poor libraries in C but properly written C is often faster if not by much.

[TWell]

I did not find a decent C compiler until VC98 but the best 32 bit version I found was VC2003 (VCTOOLKIT) which had very good libraries and produced efficient code.

Last one that had a libc.lib (single threaded crt).

One good feature in C is that you don't have to use the crt at all.
Other compiler put always their own junk to executable.

[jj2007]

GFA basic that was written in assembler

That was my favourite dialect until 16-bit code stopped working on Windows. The author has his own Wikipedia entry, probably because his fans were so furious that he didn't port Gfa to Win32

[ChrisGreenwalt]

Good to know that BASIC has been for fifty years and hope so that all things will go perfectly in maintaining the BASIC language.

[jj2007]

Hi Chris Greenwalt,

Looking to Get Help from Dissertation Writing Services UK as You have Failed to Write Your Dissertation up to The Standard of Your University or College? Looking to Buy Dissertation from UK Dissertation Writing Services that May Get an A+ for You?

... isn't writing a dissertation for somebody else illegal? And what does that illegal activity have to do with Masm32 or Basic?

Btw it would be great if SMF implemented a mechanism that disallows members with less than x posts and/or y days of membership to put links into posts or signatures.

[felipe]

 :icon14: jj you are like an eagle! 

[aw27]

I created a BASIC program for the Sinclair computers to help win on Football Lotto using some statistical analysis.
It was distributed in compact tape and announced in newspapers. There was no Internet or even BBS and there were no floppy disks at the time, at least for that computer. I sold some 20 units or so and one thing I remember was a customer writing back to me and say that with my program he would win the lotto only when pigs can fly (here, we say when chicken have teeth). The others never complained so are probably rich by now. 

[jj2007]

Hey Caroline,

Your link to personalstatementfolks.co.uk is broken, so all the precious time you invested in registering and formulating a tailored post was wasted. So sorry, Caroline ;)

P.S.: Strange that this thread attracts the bots

[Lonewolff]

Another random bot post.