alt Hacker NewsLaughing agreement. I’m very sentimental for BASIC.
By the standard of getting kids started it’s an amazing and wildly successful language.
By any other standard, it is absolutely terrible! It commits every famous programming sin! Stay away! Do not learn from this language! LOL
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keyle • today at 5:12 AM
10 PRINT "THIS IS FINE"
20 GOTO 10
Classic Basic (line numbers, GOTO) resembles 1960s/1970s FORTRAN before it adopted structured programming. The idea when BASIC was invented in Dartmouth in the 1960s that it would be a good introduction to programming for students who might have to learn FORTRAN. The thing is, when BASIC was at its most popular (1980s home computers) FORTRAN itself had moved on from "spaghetti code".