Tribute to the creators of the Basic language

10 CLS
20 PRINT "Very sad to hear this news"
30 GOTO 20
The CLS command was added much later in 1983, when CRT Terminals became available. I was introduced to BASIC in the 1970s, with teleprinters working with a DEC PDP11 timeshare system, where the only option was to print the Formfeed character (Chr$12). We just chewed up cartons of tractor-feed paper!
 
Thank you to the inventors who had no idea how broadly their "simple language for students" would eventually spread. I've used some version of BASIC on almost any type of computer: APPLE II, IBM PC (and dozens of clones), Palm devices of multiple flavors, OS-9 running on a Radio Shack Color Computer (actually faster than the DOS PC's of the day), PICAXE of almost all flavors. I've used a couple of BASIC compilers (NOT Microsoft) that created small and very fast code, and Visual Basic of many flavors on the various versions of Windows.

With the right (fast page feed) printer, it was possible to have a couple feet of vertical paper with a string of consecutive Formfeeds ;-)

Long in the distant past, my "office at home" for the 2AM "The system's down!" calls had a Tectronix terminal and an AT&T chain printer running on a statistical multiplexor which connected to the remote computer over 2400 baud modem: flicker, flicker, flicker and three lines on the terminal then ZIP and one line on the printer - but it was high tech at the time ;-)
 
With the right (fast page feed) printer, it was possible to have a couple feet of vertical paper with a string of consecutive Formfeeds ;-)

I took a FORTRAN IV class at Virginia Tech circa 1980 when punch cards were the order of the day, running on the school mainframe. Only teachers were allowed run the decks ever since some previous student got into an endless paper advance loop and the industrial grade printer "shot a parabolic arc of fanfold paper across the room." So it was an overnite PITA to see how and IF your program ran.

Dad loaned me a TRS-80 to try my programs on. FORTRAN and BASIC were very similar, made it easy.
 
Yes, I've read 'endless loop', a history of basic by lorrenzo. The treatment of he and John kemeny, basic and time-sharing is illumimative, and the book well worth reading.
 
As an afterthought, I think had the 'b' in basic been replaced by the word 'basic', with the other letters as they are, then I think those somewhat, possibly pompous, advanced programmers may not have looked down on basic with such disdain.
 
Re: "advanced programmers may not have looked down on basic with such disdain"

Per http://david.tribble.com/text/goto.html, Edsger W. Dijkstra called for abolishing the goto statement in programming languages in 1968. Applies to high-level languages including BASIC and FORTRAN.

That was my inspiration for this code of all Goto statements, which makes a great light show in the simulator.

 
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Code:
aa:goto zz
bb:goto yy
cc:goto xx
dd:goto ww
ee:goto vv
ff:goto uu
gg:goto tt
hh:goto ss
ii:goto rr
jj:goto qq
kk:goto pp
ll:goto oo
mm:goto nn
nn:goto aa
oo:goto mm
pp:goto ll
qq:goto kk
rr:goto jj
ss:goto ii
tt:goto hh
uu:goto gg
vv:goto ff
ww:goto ee
xx:goto dd
yy:goto cc
zz:goto bb
 
Hmmm... now wondering how to draw a Christmas tree in the serial terminal or some such nonsense ... :)

I may have to find my AXE107K and AXE108K kits to build and upgrade Rudolph before tonight!
 
Hmmm... now wondering how to draw a Christmas tree in the serial terminal or some such nonsense ... :)

I may have to find my AXE107K and AXE108K kits to build and upgrade Rudolph before tonight!
Your post arrived in this part of the world at 4:55AM Christmas Day. I'm afraid any help from me won't be for a few months!

Happy Christmas 🎄. I trust that Santa will bring you lots of PICAXEs.
 
I didn't get far but I found this...!

 
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