4 ms·
There’s nothing inherently slow about Basic. There were several implementations of Basic compilers that were plenty fast enough. Sure, they weren’t as fast as
by lockhouse 4y ago
There’s nothing inherently slow about Basic. There were several implementations of Basic compilers that were plenty fast enough. Sure, they weren’t as fast as C, C++, Pascal, and Fortran, but they were good enough to make commercial software with.
- bhauer 4y agoExactly. For example, GFA Basic, mentioned in the article, was quite fast, especially when compiled.
- musicale 4y agoThe first BASIC implementations were compiled. In fact, compilation to machine code was one of the 4 original requirements for the language when it was first developed as a language for the Dartmouth College time-sharing system (efficiency and performance being directly related to the number of users that the system could support.) Many early BASIC implementations for microcomputers (such as tiny BASIC) prioritized memory usage over speed, so they tended to favor interpreters. But as others have noted, numerous compiled BASIC implementations existed as well.