A Basic History
Apr 10, 2021 10:05:13 #
Interesting history. I learned Fortran in 1960 and one of my first graduate computer courses included instruction on FAP, the assembly language for Fortran. I used Basic on my first personal computer - an Apple II with 2 external full-height hard drives - but only Fortran for many years on big machines. My current favorite language is R but I could probably still do nested Do loops if my life depended on it.
Apr 10, 2021 10:12:41 #
compilot
Loc: ARIZONA
Thank you so much for posting this link. I knew some of the background but not the total story.
Apr 10, 2021 10:38:37 #
bobbyjohn wrote:
I, also, remember punch cards... I used to program in Assembler Language for CICS, which was one of the earliest of online systems...and that's without the Internet. We'd take our program which was a stack of punch cards, run it through the card reader, the computer would then compile it. Any mistakes or revisions meant you'd have to find that card and replace (correct) it. Wow! How times have changed!
Yup. Good times???
Apr 10, 2021 10:44:51 #
In 1982 or ‘83, I co-authored ENJOYING BASIC. It was published by Harper & Row, with the expectation of selling 200,000 copies. About two months after it hit the streets, another language was ushered in—for the life of me, I can’t remember what language it was—and our sales tanked at around 16,000. The result was a letdown, but it was a fun project.
Apr 10, 2021 10:58:32 #
I think the computer that peaked interest was a Sinclair made in Britain ?
Apr 10, 2021 11:01:24 #
I think the computer that peaked my interest was a Sinclair made in Britain ? This laptop I am sitting at is just slightly different. 
Apr 10, 2021 11:01:59 #
Longshadow wrote:
Oh, I remember punch cards!!!
In the Winter of 1965, I was on my way to a class at Iowa State Uni. Ahead of me was another student with a 4” plus stack of punch cards under his arm. All of a sudden, something shifted and the entire stack went flying. I’ll never forget what I consider one of the most painful and horrified looks on anyone’s face that I’ve ever seen.
Apr 10, 2021 11:26:51 #
47greyfox wrote:
In the Winter of 1965, I was on my way to a class at Iowa State Uni. Ahead of me was another student with a 4” plus stack of punch cards under his arm. All of a sudden, something shifted and the entire stack went flying. I’ll never forget what I consider one of the most painful and horrified looks on anyone’s face that I’ve ever seen.
As I recall, when keypunch the cards in, one could have the machine put sequence numbers on the right, with a delta of say 100 between cards to allow for future insertions. Then if dropped, you could put the deck in a sorter which would get them back in sequence order. Antiquated method, yes. But computer programming had to start somewhere.
Apr 10, 2021 11:29:52 #
47greyfox wrote:
In the Winter of 1965, I was on my way to a class at Iowa State Uni. Ahead of me was another student with a 4” plus stack of punch cards under his arm. All of a sudden, something shifted and the entire stack went flying. I’ll never forget what I consider one of the most painful and horrified looks on anyone’s face that I’ve ever seen.
Oh yes, I've seen that happen a few times.
We started putting diagonal lines using markers on the top of the decks.
Made it much easier. Black, red, green, double and triple line sets.
(Still wish I had fan-fold paper for code listings...)
Apr 10, 2021 11:33:26 #
Longshadow wrote:
...(Still wish I had fan-fold paper for code listings...)
I find my duplex printer and a stapler serves the purpose. I have the choice to print the back upside down and use two staples at the top or print right side up and use two staples on the left edge.
I had an output holder, like a book with two pins to go through the drive holes on the edge of the paper. Would hold about 500 pages of output. Used it for saving program listings for future reference. Oldest programs dated to about 1964, but I tossed it in the last move. All the programs were on hard drives by that time (at least the current versions of the programs).
Apr 10, 2021 11:38:29 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
I find my duplex printer and a stapler serves the purpose. I have the choice to print the back upside down and use two staples at the top or print right side up and use two staples on the left edge.
I thought about that, printing head-to-toe, but you can only staple two sheets at a time to keep the "fan-fold".
Apr 10, 2021 11:49:47 #
Longshadow wrote:
I thought about that, printing head-to-toe, but you can only staple two sheets at a time to keep the "fan-fold".
The book I had stored fan-fold paper but I could only see two pages at a time.
If I have a long program I can set bookmarks to jump between sections that are far apart.
Apr 10, 2021 12:45:37 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
The book I had stored fan-fold paper but I could only see two pages at a time.
If I have a long program I can set bookmarks to jump between sections that are far apart.
If I have a long program I can set bookmarks to jump between sections that are far apart.
That's when a long table comes in handy.
I think Komodo will collapse (hide code in) braces sets. 'Tis handy.
Apr 10, 2021 13:00:59 #
Longshadow wrote:
That's when a long table comes in handy.
I think Komodo will collapse (hide code in) braces sets. 'Tis handy.
That's when a long table comes in handy.
I think Komodo will collapse (hide code in) braces sets. 'Tis handy.
I downloaded Komodo and looked briefly at it but haven't really gotten into it yet. Busy debugging some Python programs.
Apr 10, 2021 13:18:14 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
I downloaded Komodo and looked briefly at it but haven't really gotten into it yet. Busy debugging some Python programs.
I can do a lot, way more than I require!
I found the "collapse braces" accidentally.
Clicked to highlight a line, one space too far to the left,
code went "pouf"!
Noticed that line numbers were missing.
Clicked again and they came back.
Scared me for a bit, a WTH moment.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.