4 ms·

Kemeny ruined Dartmouth College and BASIC was far behind the state of the art in programming languages at the time.

cowtools 4y ago
It's irrelevant because the purpose of BASIC is to teach principles of computer programming, not to be a useful language in itself: https://basic256.org/2019/06/27/why-another-basic/ https://basic256.org/2019/06/27/why-another-basic/
- TMWNN 4y ago
  Indeed. Dartmouth in the 1960s and 1970s, with the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (with a BASIC-driven UI), had * computer terminals everywhere, including libraries, dorms, offices, and even the medical clinic * many classes (not just computer science or math) requiring use of the terminals for various tasks * a widespread culture among students and faculty (again, not just computer science or math) of use of the terminals for work and play (games, email, chat) * more computer terminals at dozens of off-campus locations, including high schools, other universities, and Dartmouth alumni clubs It is not an exaggeration to say that Dartmouth c. 1970 had the world's most widely used and widespread computer network, exceeding anything at MIT, Stanford, or UIUC.
  - wrycoder 4y ago
    Nice network. But Dartmouth BASIC was a primitive language that encouraged unmaintainable spaghetti code. (This was not too bad, if the programs were twenty lines long, I guess.)
- wrycoder 4y ago
  Dartmouth BASIC did no such thing. It lacked any concept of structured programming until 1975 (Pascal was introduced in 1970), and for many years its variable names consisted of a single character and a digit. Goto's went to line numbers, not labels. User functions were designated with a single letter. These limitations weren't removed until the mid '70s, and then only by replacing the whole system with a better language informed by Algol 60, which had been around for 15 years at that point. The result was generations of Dartmouth students who learned how to write unmaintainable spaghetti code and thought they had learned "the principles of computer programming", as you put it. They deserved better.

It's irrelevant because the purpose of BASIC is to teach principles of computer programming, not to be a useful language in itself: https://basic256.org/2019/06/27/why-another-basic/ https://basic256.org/2019/06/27/why-another-basic/

TMWNN 4y ago
Indeed. Dartmouth in the 1960s and 1970s, with the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (with a BASIC-driven UI), had * computer terminals everywhere, including libraries, dorms, offices, and even the medical clinic * many classes (not just computer science or math) requiring use of the terminals for various tasks * a widespread culture among students and faculty (again, not just computer science or math) of use of the terminals for work and play (games, email, chat) * more computer terminals at dozens of off-campus locations, including high schools, other universities, and Dartmouth alumni clubs It is not an exaggeration to say that Dartmouth c. 1970 had the world's most widely used and widespread computer network, exceeding anything at MIT, Stanford, or UIUC.
- wrycoder 4y ago
  Nice network. But Dartmouth BASIC was a primitive language that encouraged unmaintainable spaghetti code. (This was not too bad, if the programs were twenty lines long, I guess.)
wrycoder 4y ago
Dartmouth BASIC did no such thing. It lacked any concept of structured programming until 1975 (Pascal was introduced in 1970), and for many years its variable names consisted of a single character and a digit. Goto's went to line numbers, not labels. User functions were designated with a single letter. These limitations weren't removed until the mid '70s, and then only by replacing the whole system with a better language informed by Algol 60, which had been around for 15 years at that point. The result was generations of Dartmouth students who learned how to write unmaintainable spaghetti code and thought they had learned "the principles of computer programming", as you put it. They deserved better.