elranchero, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago)

@harrymccracken

I will try an analogy with foods.

When I first moved to California, I was invited to a sushi bar. Some people won't like sushi. I tried it. I liked it. I'm still alive. Why would I judge someone for liking sushi?

In the 1990s I saw squid steak at seafood Bay in East Hollywood. I tried it. I liked it.
But I know many won't like it.
People can make up their own minds.

elranchero, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken

Here's an axiom I learned many years ago.

1. dont make fun of a person's spouse

2. dont make fun of their motorcycle, scooter or bicycle

And now 3) don't make fun of basic programmers.

teixi, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken

Triple congrats !!!

#CHM #computerhistorymuseum
2023 Fellows Awards

@rodneyabrooks — #robotics

Thomas E. Kurtz — #basic

Barbara Liskov — #LSP

https://computerhistory.org/press-releases/computer-history-museum-names-new-fellows-to-honor-lifetime-achievements-in-computing/

#theoreticalCompSci
#computing
#digitalAge

harrymccracken, 7 months ago

In 2014, I marked BASIC's 50th birthday by exploring its history and surprisingly controversial reputation. (Lots of Serious Computer People didn't like it, which seems ridiculous to me.) https://time.com/69316/basic/

Dashdrum, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken when I was in college in the early 80s, BASIC was for the Business majors. Math and CS majors took Fortran.

briand06, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken Funny coming from you. The best guide to FORTRAN programming was written by a guy with the same last name as yours 😂

Jokes aside, BASIC at its time was too slow and underpowered for serious programming and fragmentation among the different platforms didn’t help, too.

harrymccracken, 7 months ago

@briand06 I've encountered at least one person who was convinced I was the guy who wrote the FORTRAN book and was amazed how youthful I seemed.

Even Kemeny and Kurtz didn't like the fragmentation of BASIC. They called the various microcomputer variants "street BASICs."

mdavis, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken @briand06 And yet, if you take the best parts of that fragmentation with some inspiration from other languages, you could end up with something quite clever to improve the experience of writing in BASIC.

https://www.morgandavis.net/blog/2009/08/09/md-basic/

See the PDF link on this page for a complete view of what I ended up writing to improve the venerable Applesoft BASIC over 30 years ago.

harrymccracken, 7 months ago

@mdavis @briand06 A friend recently gave me an Apple IIc, so I'm just now using AppleSoft for the first time. I've noticed that it's missing some of the handy string functions in TRS-80 Level II BASIC.

mdavis, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago)

@harrymccracken It’s missing a lot! Feel free to use my AmperWorks utility (which was included with the Object Module Manager) to fill in some of those missing features.

https://www.morgandavis.net/blog/2009/08/09/object-module-manager/

… And that’s a really nice friend you have! :)

lorihc, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken BASIC was my first programming language.

bouncing, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken Well, it did teach a lot of bad habits. Like “GOTO”.

But a lot of that is people judging it by modern standards and comparing it to languages like Python.

harrymccracken, 7 months ago

@bouncing I continue to insist that GOTO is good. But then again, I would: BASIC is the only programming language I know well enough to be considered fluent,

fnordius, 7 months ago

@harrymccracken @Gte thanks for sharing the link. I too come from the era, though my path led to using HyperCard and then HTML, making me into the frontend developer I am now.

Every now and then I get nostalgic for my old Commodore 64 and fiddling in BASIC, I admit.