actually, basic being so slow might be some kind of good feature. one of the first programs i ever wrote was an implementation of conway's game of life in basic

actually, basic being so slow might be some kind of good feature. one of the first programs i ever wrote was an implementation of conway's game of life in basic on a z80 cp/m machine. i was unhappy with the results. this made me learn z80 assembler so i could get it to run much, much faster. but probably, looking back from old age, what i should have done was improve the algorithms i was using. i think basic is a good thing. perhaps a bit sad that people today do not have instant access to it.