7 ms·

Decimal BASIC

53 points by lproven 3y ago

sytelus 3y ago
This is great. Is there any version of BASIC that integrates with VSCode?
- LoganDark 3y ago
  What?
- ngcc_hk 3y ago
  https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=Basic&target=vscode&category=All%20categories&sortBy=Relevance https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=Basic&targe... A few in the market place. Vscode does not integrate though.
  - actionfromafar 3y ago
    It embraces, extends and extinguishes?
- LispSporks22 3y ago
  Can't tell if satire
kristopolous 3y ago
Adjacent topic. If you're in the Bay, the co-inventor of BASIC, Thomas E. Kurtz, is being awarded at CHM in November. https://computerhistory.org/events/2023-fellow-award-ceremony/ https://computerhistory.org/events/2023-fellow-award-ceremon... He's 95 so if you wanted to meet him, that event is a great time. The Turing Award winner Barbara Liskov and the founder of iRobot, Rodney Brooks, is also on that schedule.
- password4321 3y ago
  Still for sale! True BASIC by Kemeny and Kurtz (3 days ago, 31 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37802703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37802703 Several cool anecdotes there.
  - kristopolous 3y ago
    I presume basics are still in wide use, just not with people I interact with. VBA for example. PureBasic, FreeBasic, there's still many out there. And of course TI-Basic
valyagolev 3y ago
> Full BASIC has suitable facilities for those who are unacquainted with the peculiar knowledge about computers. sometimes if wonder if an idea like this is somehow related to the intuitive and rather questionable beliefs that people who don't know a (human) language will understand it better if you shout at them, or that kids learn better if you condescend to them
- lproven 3y ago
  I think the core concepts of BASIC have been overlooked and then forgotten in the shift to Unix and Unix-like systems. The very axiom is an important point: If you type a valid command, the computer does it _now_. If you prefix it with a number, the computer remembers it and does it later. That is huge. With this very simple distinction, which can be adapted to any human language or alphabet, suddenly, you have a simple model for building up programs in small steps, without needing to know about "files" or "folders" or "text editors" or any of that arcane stuff that learners need to handle Python or any other so-called beginners language. "Do it now" versus "remember this" without using files is massive. A second point, and a pain point for me with C and things built in C such as Python... In BASIC, if output is in quotes, the language prints it. Other stuff is outside the quotes. Dead easy, simple, memorable. PRINT "My name is "; name$ That's it. C is much more complicated, with magic happening inside the quotes. printf ("My name is %n", n); Some of the weird stuff is inside the quotes but then it's repeated again outside them, and the stuff inside sort of affects the stuff outside, so some of what's inside is printed, and some is kinda processed somehow... It's complicated and it's unnecessary and it's wrong to expect kids and beginners to learn this arcane 1970s junk. Python does the same sort of weird processing... print(f"My name is {}" name) ... or something. It's messy and it's unnecessary. It's exposing the beginner to implementation details and it's a bad idea.
  - guenthert 3y ago
    > I think the core concepts of BASIC have been overlooked and then forgotten in the shift to Unix and Unix-like systems. Unix and BASIC are strictly orthogonal concepts/products. -hp- sold happily BASIC with their Unix workstations (that combination, at one time, was popular for automating test&measurement gear). Nothing stops you from linking a BASIC interpreter to /sbin/init .
krossitalk 3y ago
Is there a full source for the Mandelbrot shown on the home page?

Decimal BASIC

53 points by lproven 3y ago

sytelus 3y ago

This is great. Is there any version of BASIC that integrates with VSCode?

LoganDark 3y ago
What?
ngcc_hk 3y ago
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=Basic&target=vscode&category=All%20categories&sortBy=Relevance https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=Basic&targe... A few in the market place. Vscode does not integrate though.
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  It embraces, extends and extinguishes?
LispSporks22 3y ago
Can't tell if satire

kristopolous 3y ago

Adjacent topic. If you're in the Bay, the co-inventor of BASIC, Thomas E. Kurtz, is being awarded at CHM in November. https://computerhistory.org/events/2023-fellow-award-ceremony/ https://computerhistory.org/events/2023-fellow-award-ceremon... He's 95 so if you wanted to meet him, that event is a great time. The Turing Award winner Barbara Liskov and the founder of iRobot, Rodney Brooks, is also on that schedule.

password4321 3y ago
Still for sale! True BASIC by Kemeny and Kurtz (3 days ago, 31 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37802703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37802703 Several cool anecdotes there.
- kristopolous 3y ago
  I presume basics are still in wide use, just not with people I interact with. VBA for example. PureBasic, FreeBasic, there's still many out there. And of course TI-Basic

valyagolev 3y ago

> Full BASIC has suitable facilities for those who are unacquainted with the peculiar knowledge about computers. sometimes if wonder if an idea like this is somehow related to the intuitive and rather questionable beliefs that people who don't know a (human) language will understand it better if you shout at them, or that kids learn better if you condescend to them

lproven 3y ago
I think the core concepts of BASIC have been overlooked and then forgotten in the shift to Unix and Unix-like systems. The very axiom is an important point: If you type a valid command, the computer does it _now_. If you prefix it with a number, the computer remembers it and does it later. That is huge. With this very simple distinction, which can be adapted to any human language or alphabet, suddenly, you have a simple model for building up programs in small steps, without needing to know about "files" or "folders" or "text editors" or any of that arcane stuff that learners need to handle Python or any other so-called beginners language. "Do it now" versus "remember this" without using files is massive. A second point, and a pain point for me with C and things built in C such as Python... In BASIC, if output is in quotes, the language prints it. Other stuff is outside the quotes. Dead easy, simple, memorable. PRINT "My name is "; name$ That's it. C is much more complicated, with magic happening inside the quotes. printf ("My name is %n", n); Some of the weird stuff is inside the quotes but then it's repeated again outside them, and the stuff inside sort of affects the stuff outside, so some of what's inside is printed, and some is kinda processed somehow... It's complicated and it's unnecessary and it's wrong to expect kids and beginners to learn this arcane 1970s junk. Python does the same sort of weird processing... print(f"My name is {}" name) ... or something. It's messy and it's unnecessary. It's exposing the beginner to implementation details and it's a bad idea.
- guenthert 3y ago
  > I think the core concepts of BASIC have been overlooked and then forgotten in the shift to Unix and Unix-like systems. Unix and BASIC are strictly orthogonal concepts/products. -hp- sold happily BASIC with their Unix workstations (that combination, at one time, was popular for automating test&measurement gear). Nothing stops you from linking a BASIC interpreter to /sbin/init .

krossitalk 3y ago

Is there a full source for the Mandelbrot shown on the home page?