2 ms·

Was there really a time period where BASIC and QBasic were bread and butter languages? Yes. From the time they were introduced until today. I thought they we

by edw519 16y ago

Was there really a time period where BASIC and QBasic were bread and butter languages? Yes. From the time they were introduced until today. I thought they were toy languages... Don't kid yourself. I am aware of 3 different full blown enterprise packages written in 100% BASIC. Inventory, accounting, production, order processing, ERP, CRM, etc. still running multi-billion dollar companies all over the world. Now here comes the good part...2 or them were written by 2 people and the third was written by one person. This thread started out a little in jest, but there is (and always was) a moral to the story: You can write almost anything in almost any language. The proficiency of the practitioner is way more important than the tool being used.

ced 16y ago
Good to know... but that's not the description of a "bread and butter language", at least, not by the definition in the OP. Or else, Lisp, Haskell and Prolog would all be BBLs! I wasn't around in the 60s to witness software development, but when I think of a BBL today, I think: Java. If you want to revise your history made in jest, I'd be curious to see the result.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  No way, it's the exact definition: > This is the language that you can use to keep yourself alive when life hands you lemons. This is the language that you know just in case you need to hustle yourself to provide for yourself and your family. If you're the one dude who wrote an entire package that runs a billion dollar multinational, you can pretty much charge whatever you want. It's like the ultimate job security. Any changes have to be made through you.
  - ced 16y ago
    If you're the one dude who wrote an entire package that runs a billion dollar multinational, you can pretty much charge whatever you want. It's like the ultimate job security. Any changes have to be made through you. That's true regardless of the language.
    - steveklabnik 16y ago
      Absolutely. But that's why BASIC is his bread and butter.
      - ced 16y ago
        Ah, so that's where the confusion comes from. I thought that edw519's post was about "The typical bread-an-butter language in the 70's, in the 80's, etc." I'd still be curious to know what were the de facto languages to get a good salary in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
flogic 16y ago
Yeah. When I was younger I used to look down on things like VB. Now that I've pulled my head out of my ass, I realize many of those apps were a net win and would have been less of a win in a man's language like C++.

by edw519 16y ago

ced 16y ago

Good to know... but that's not the description of a "bread and butter language", at least, not by the definition in the OP. Or else, Lisp, Haskell and Prolog would all be BBLs! I wasn't around in the 60s to witness software development, but when I think of a BBL today, I think: Java. If you want to revise your history made in jest, I'd be curious to see the result.

steveklabnik 16y ago
No way, it's the exact definition: > This is the language that you can use to keep yourself alive when life hands you lemons. This is the language that you know just in case you need to hustle yourself to provide for yourself and your family. If you're the one dude who wrote an entire package that runs a billion dollar multinational, you can pretty much charge whatever you want. It's like the ultimate job security. Any changes have to be made through you.
- ced 16y ago
  If you're the one dude who wrote an entire package that runs a billion dollar multinational, you can pretty much charge whatever you want. It's like the ultimate job security. Any changes have to be made through you. That's true regardless of the language.
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    Absolutely. But that's why BASIC is his bread and butter.
    - ced 16y ago
      Ah, so that's where the confusion comes from. I thought that edw519's post was about "The typical bread-an-butter language in the 70's, in the 80's, etc." I'd still be curious to know what were the de facto languages to get a good salary in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

flogic 16y ago

Yeah. When I was younger I used to look down on things like VB. Now that I've pulled my head out of my ass, I realize many of those apps were a net win and would have been less of a win in a man's language like C++.