Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site diku.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!mcvax!diku!kimcm From: kimcm@diku.UUCP (Kim Christian Madsen.) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Re: (qualityp BASIC) -> NIL Message-ID: <791@diku.UUCP> Date: Tue, 19-Feb-85 13:28:33 EST Article-I.D.: diku.791 Posted: Tue Feb 19 13:28:33 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 21-Feb-85 06:06:22 EST References: <7873@brl-tgr.ARPA> <706@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> <467@houxj.UUCP> <733@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> Reply-To: kimcm@diku.UUCP (Kim Christian Madsen.) Organization: DIKU, U of Copenhagen, DK Lines: 66 Keywords: Programming languages, BASIC, education Summary: In article <733@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> mwm@ucbtopaz.UUCP (Praiser of Bob) writes: > >Yes, you can find external reasons for using a language. Including BASIC, >COBOL, PL/I and FORTRAN (the whipping boys of the CS community). Just such >reasons have had me writing machine code. And such external reasons will continue make you use such languages! Many application programs are written in COBOL, FORTRAN and BASIC. And several of the microcomputers are born with BASIC ROM'ed (or some BASIC-dialect). >Now, back to the subject line (maligning BASIC :-). I know of *no* class >of problems for which anything even close to ANSI minimal BASIC is the >best tool for the job. True, there are extended BASICs that are useful, >but most of those look more like Pascal than BASIC. However, those aren't >portable to other BASICs, and some of them choke on ANSI minimal BASIC. >It's like the Pascal problem: you either get something inadaquate, or you >get something unportable. You're quite right computer languages are tools which you can use for many reasons. In education however BASIC can be a great advantage, if the intensions of the course isn't primary a programming course but an information about `What computers can do'. Most people who have never worked with a computer before can better manage to understand small and simple programs in BASIC than nearly any other programming language. [No I'm not talking about obscure peek/poke USER$ inline assembler directives in REMarks etc. But plain BASIC code.] Imagine you never saw a computer program before which of the following would you understand the best. i) 0010 LET A=10 0020 LET B=15 0030 PRINT 'Sum:'; A+B ii) PROGRAM sum (output); VAR A,B : real; BEGIN A := 10.0; B := 15.0; writeln ("Sum: ", A+B) END. iii) #include #define A 10.0 #define B 15.0 main () { printf ("Sum: %f",A+B) } Granted this is very simple programs, however they can demonstrate the ease in which you can write a simple program in BASIC. The other languages may be much more useful to people who studies computer science or have made programming their way of life. But to explain the concept of programming to novices I think BASIC is a wonderful uncomplicated language. If you want to make really sophisticated programs and you have the rigth tools at your hands then use them or learn to use them. I think the proper way to be a programmer is to solve the problems first without a computer, but make a strategy and perhaps a pseudocode and when you have conquered the problem then you can express it in any computer language you want plain and neat. [To equal minded!] -- Kim Chr. Madsen Datalogisk Institut (Institute of Datalogy) University of Copenhagen {decvax,philabs,seismo}!mcvax!diku!kimcm