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How does BASIC being easy to use or not have anything to do with newer languages being easier to use? Newer languages have the benefit of hindsight and rapidly
by mynameisvlad 4y ago
How does BASIC being easy to use or not have anything to do with newer languages being easier to use?
Newer languages have the benefit of hindsight and rapidly improved technology. Better graphics, more power, fewer of the heavy limitations that came with early technology. Between the time that BASIC and Python first came out, we went from System/360 mainframes to Windows 3.0 on our home desktops. Obviously newer languages are going to be able to take advantage of this increased power and wider abilities of computers.
It should be plainly obvious to anyone who takes more than a second to think about it.
- Dylan16807 4y ago> How does BASIC being easy to use or not have anything to do with newer languages being easier to use? Because "easy" is a somewhat relative term. The category will shift over time.
- mynameisvlad 4y agoDid you bother to even remotely read the comment you replied to, which says the same thing? The category shifts over time, sure. But what does that have to do with BASIC being easy or not? They're two separate topics.
- Dylan16807 4y agoLet me be clearer. The category changes and the changes can often be applied retroactively. "In hindsight, that wasn't actually easy. It was a massive opportunity for highly motivated learners, but the amount of motivation needed was more than what can fairly be called easy." I'll compare to an early bicycle with no pedals. They were a breakthrough at the time, but in hindsight they hadn't reached "easy". And just like making a better bike, plenty of the issues with BASIC could have been fixed on the equipment of its heyday. And it's not just that things improved over time and you need to be new. There are very old bikes that are plenty easy. But it took a while to figure out.