4 ms·
The article is specifically discussing the ease of getting into an IDE on a new PC. When I started, I could turn on the PC, type “basic”, and press enter. Now,
by psyc 9y ago
The article is specifically discussing the ease of getting into an IDE on a new PC. When I started, I could turn on the PC, type “basic”, and press enter. Now, at minimum, I would need to know to start notepad, save an html file, point a browser at it, and type some html and js boilerplate. That’s what the article says is harder (except the article goes on to discuss installing other languages, which is even harder).
- rtpg 9y agoFor many people in the 90s, trying to program a "game" or anything like that often involved C++. Try figuring out programming _and_ linking libraries you have to download off the internet (all before we had the kind of resources we have now). The IDE wasn't enough, you needed to set a bunch of stuff up. And using any GUI? OK now you're learning Win32. Sure, maybe it was easier to write the "number guessing game" in a text window. But only barely.
- psyc 9y agoThis is an extremely bad characterization of how far people went with BASIC.