The BASIC programming language turns 60

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• eestileib@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I remember typing in BASIC programs from printed magazines. That’s how I got my start.

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  • veroxii@aussie.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I recall my dad bought a book with VIC 20 games printed. And you bet I typed them all in. And then had to debug them.

    It wasn’t this one but it was very similar: archive.org/details/games-for-your-vic-20/…/1up

    And this book came with the computer and taught me how to code: archive.org/details/…/1up

    Such fun memories. And now I’m CEO of a software company haha.

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  • Nougat@fedia.io ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I bought a year's subscription to Timex Sinclair User, which folded like four months later.

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  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Same. It kinda spiraled out of control

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  • vext01@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Same here! ZX spectrum.

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  • 4am@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I used to write them on a Smith Corona correctable typewriter because we didn’t have a PC at home and then bring them into school to type in in the computer lab after school for computer club

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• diplodocus@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Thanks, BASIC, for teaching me so much I had to unlearn in order to not be a garbage programmer.

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  • dan@upvote.au ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The first time I tried another programming language, I was confused as to how to write code without using GOTO.

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    • vext01@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Some dialects of BASIC had more structured control flow.

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• Bricriu@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I learned TI BASIC on a Texas Instruments 99/4a back in the very early 80s. Wrote some programs from magazines, saved them on tapes, and went on to automate D&D character creation in an attempt to rules-lawyer an all-PC dwarf army.

  Fun fact, though: TI BASIC lived on until at least the late 90s, on the TI graphing calculators that everyone taking Algebra/Trig had to buy – or borrow from the school. I wrote a surreal choose-your-own-adventure game on my calculator, large enough that because of memory limitations, you couldn’t open the file to edit it without deleting another, ancillary file.

  And since you could transfer programs via a proprietary cable, I put that game on every school calculator and as many of my friends’ as wanted it. It was still there years later when I visited.

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  • whostosay@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is that real gangster shit in case any of you were wondering

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  • kalimari@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    TI BASIC is still on my TI-84+ CE calculator that I use today

    I’m not sure if the Python edition TI 84 supports it though

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• Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Easiest Hello World program ever in BASIC.

  10 PRINT "Hello World"
  20 GOTO 10
  

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  • xyzzy@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    C

    #include <stdio.h>
    
    int main() {
        printf("Hello, world");
        return 0;
    }
    

    C++

    #include <iostream>
    
    int main() {
        std::cout << "Hello, world" << std::endl;
        return 0;
    }
    

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• floofloof@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  BBC BASIC was best BASIC. Fight me.

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  • wjrii@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    In a world with GORILLA.BAS and NIBBLES.BAS, I simply cannot reject the QBASIC faith with which I was raised.

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  • thehatfox@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    There an open source implementation of BBC Basic for modern systems that’s being actively developed - BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0.

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    • therealbabyshell@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It is great with lots of libraries. I am writing a game in it right now.

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  • Boddhisatva@kbin.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Bring it! I once wrote a basic program off of the random dungeon generator tables in the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons - Dungeon Masters Guide using Atari BASIC.

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  • gregorum@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    GPL BASIC

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    • LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      10 PRINT “Sausage slaps” 20 GOTO 10

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    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      GPL as in the GPL? I thought that was first published in 1989

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  • humorlessrepost@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    GW BASIC best BASIC

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• ma11en@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Sinclair Spectrum 48k Basic for me.

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• thehatfox@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  There are so many weird and wonderful BASIC dialects found on all sorts of platforms.

  In Europe the PlayStation 2 shipped with a version of Yabasic on the bundled demo disc. It was an attempt to avoid some of import taxes by claiming the PS2 was a computer instead of a games console.

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• cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  went to computer camp in the early 90s (yes i was the stereotype) and we learned basic programming on radio shack computers (the monitor/keyboard combined type - i can’t remember the name)

  then i moved on to qbasic and started programming basic type text adventure games with inventory management in my spare time :)

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• paulh@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I found that the simpler, early BASIC dialects were a good primer for assembly language. You had to create all the structure from jumps to numeric values. Goto and gosub mapped on to jump and call instructions.

  Using labels in assembly was a step up from line numbers!

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• blazeknave@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  First line of code was in qbasic in 88

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• xia@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Can something really “turn 60” if it is dead, though?

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