Have you ever programmed in BASIC?

[Guenter]

I have programmed some data aquisitian software on a mac+ in ms quickbasic for personal use. Later on i have used different basic compilers on mac and pc for the same reason. I have also programmed some utilities i think it was with real basic on a mac (ppc), allowing to compile for win and mac. The win versions have been still used under win 10, but i dont know if they are working under win 11.
In the latest years daq software was develloped with nat. Instrument software (labview).

 

[boppin]

Wow! Great topic! Back when I started vocational school to train for a career in IT, we had a programming course, among other subjects. That was where I first came into contact with Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications—though my cousin had introduced me to BASIC long before that, I hadn't really been able to do much with it. Back then, I used to write batch files in MS-DOS.

In any case, one of my classmates at the time found the standalone package for Visual Basic 6. I was particularly fascinated by the process of creating a setup program. My most ambitious goal back then was to develop a mathematics program that used wizards to calculate just about anything. Apart from that, I only recall programming a currency converter—for instance, converting Deutsche Marks and pesetas into euros. The project I liked best was the calculator I programmed. Unfortunately, it remained unfinished; it lacks scientific functions, but it can handle addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, powers, and square roots, as well as correctly placing the decimal point, saving results, and using the constant pi.

And best of all: it can handle division by zero.

 

[it wasnt me]

… badly.

 

[boppin]

… badly.

Why?

And I forgot:

I also wrote an application that was similar to Microsoft's WordPad and an application who could write into Windows registry to use a time bomb or something like Windows product activation. But then I would have to study mathematics.

 

[it wasnt me]

The mathematically correct way to divide by zero is “don’t”.

 

[boppin]

The mathematically correct way to divide by zero is “don’t”.

In principle, yes, but you have to take people's lack of knowledge—or something like that—into account. So, you need to find a method or a way to address that.

 

[it wasnt me]

All relevant programming languages have a way to address that: “invalid operation”.

 

[boppin]

All relevant programming languages have a way to address that: “invalid operation”.

As far as I know: no.

An old DOS application just crashed by saying "division by zero". Can't remember it's name.

Don't know why that happened.

 

[it wasnt me]

Like I said: relevant…. 🙂

 

[boppin]

Like I said: relevant…. 🙂

I don't think what I mean.

When I did program the currency converter back then it was just static. By now, while typing you can get the correct amount on the fly.

But there is a problem in Microsoft BASIC:

If, for example, you enter "0.89," the program simply crashes—in the absence of a corresponding routine—when you enter the "0."

So, either use a self build workaround or use the build-in methods.

 

[Guenter]

I started programming with ms quickbasic on a Mac+ doing some data aquisition via serial port and some data evaluation. My latest basic progs are written in real basic on a PM 7500. Funnyly i have compiled some very specific progs for Win, i think at that time it was Win95 and people still used these progs under Win10, may be even now under Win11.

 

[Performa460]

Programmed in BASIC, no. But I remember my algebra textbooks in middle school used to have some code to try out, and I would painstakingly type out every line.

 

[Senor Cuete]

I got my first real programming job by rewriting BASIC programs in C. The interpreted BASIC programs ran so slowly that they couldn't be used for the tasks the company wanted. The C programs ran in a small fraction of one percent of the time. All of the BASIC variables were global so it couldn't be used for structured programming. It was not expressive - what does gosub 01 mean? I can't understand all of the nostalgia for BASIC - it sucked.

 

[boppin]

It was not expressive - what does gosub 01 mean?

Well, it depends. If you end up with spaghetti code, things get difficult. Marlin Eller wrote to me saying it’s best to break the code down into small chunks. I had asked him back then what he thought of using VBA to analyze job listings; he didn't fully grasp the specific task, but the code must have really impressed a former Microsoft employee.

 

[WriteNow]

I can't understand all of the nostalgia for BASIC - it sucked.

I have wondered if a lot of the nostalgia isn't with people who were around in the early 1980s and remember being able to use BASIC to do all sorts of fun things with computers...

 

[Doctor Q]

I can't understand all of the nostalgia for BASIC - it sucked.

The goal of BASIC wasn't efficiency, or applicability to all kinds of programming tasks, or theoretically beneficial features like structured programming. The goal was to be a simple language with which beginners could learn to program. For that it was very successful. Serious professional programmers might have used other languages, but droves of hobbyists used BASIC.

 

[Mrbobb]

First exposed to BASIC in high school's time share system, even before PC, but my call to fame is, you know those ads that are looking for COBOL programers, well I did COBOL, now show me the money if you want me to fix those 1970x business systems 😀

 

[Nermal]

All of the BASIC variables were global so it couldn't be used for structured programming. It was not expressive - what does gosub 01 mean?

In a *cough* real BASIC you'd use the LOCAL keyword and define a named PROC or FN.

DEF PROCsquare(S%)
LOCAL J%
J% = S% ^ 2
PRINT S% " squared equals "J%;
ENDPROC

 

[edubfromktown]

Apple ][ assembler + other processor platforms and many variants of BASIC.

 

[Senor Cuete]

"many variants of BASIC."

There was really no such thing as BASIC. But there were "many variants".

 

[WriteNow]

There was really no such thing as BASIC. But there were "many variants".

Indeed.

I can't remember the exactly, but it seems to me our BASIC text book in high school covered several variants. I think that concepts were introduced in a lesson, with them saying, as needed: you do this this way on this system, but this way on that system.

 

[edubfromktown]

I programmed in BASIC on a number of different platforms.

Apple ][
CP/M
C=C4
Microsoft BASIC
Borland Turbo BASIC

It got the job done (somewhat quick & dirty/rapidly protoyped for certain things) while other languages like assembler, C and FORTRAN became better options as I gained more experience.

 

[Doctor Q]

C=C4

What platform is that one? I'm not familiar with it.

 

[Greybeard2017]

I programmed in BASIC on a number of different platforms.

Apple ][
CP/M
C=C4
Microsoft BASIC
Borland Turbo BASIC

It got the job done (somewhat quick & dirty/rapidly protoyped for certain things) while other languages like assembler, C and FORTRAN became better options as I gained more experience.

I'll add Business BASIC, which powered many mission-critical business applications during the minicomputer era. It was often paired with the Pick operating system, whose integrated multidimensional database enabled rapid application development and fast access to large volumes of data.

 

[PaulD-UK]

"C=C4." What platform is that one? I'm not familiar with it.