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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece
From: preece@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Language popularity - (nf)
Message-ID: <4767@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Jan-84 22:32:42 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4767
Posted: Wed Jan  4 22:32:42 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Jan-84 02:32:07 EST
Lines: 16

#R:arizona:-678500:uicsl:6200004:000:625
uicsl!preece    Jan  4 14:28:00 1984

The 'change' command in Dartmouth Basic was really a very useful tool
(as I'm sure Andy remembers). It allowed the programmer to specify a
byte size in making the change, so that a variable number of
sub-components could be packed into a 36-bit word. It would have been
nice to have had more powerful string functions, though.

Basic also avoided the silly card format problems of FORTRAN, but I
think the principal reason it caught on was that it was very easy to
implement, allowing the early micro implementors to produce a useful
language that would run in a small, slow machine.

scott preece
ihnp4!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece