Thanks Jeff and Maddog. I learned Fortran II ( then Fortran IV) on an IBM 4044 in 1965 and GE timesharing basic. All input to the 4044 was punch cards. Being in ROTC, I went right into the Army, then to Viet Nam. No computers until 1970 😢
-- Jerry Feldman <gaf.li...@gmail.com> Boston Linux and Unix http://www.blu.org On Wed, May 1, 2024, 10:35 PM jon.maddog.h...@gmail.com < jonhal...@comcast.net> wrote: > My first language was FORTRAN, using punched cards on an IBM 1130 in 1969, > but when I went to teach at Hartford State Technical College in 1977-1980 > we used BASIC-PLUS on a DEC PDP 11/70 running RSTS/E as a time-sharing > operating system. > > Students in those days had no computers at home, and many typically had no > computer classes in high school. The first time they touched a computer > keyboard was in my "Introduction to Computer Programming" class. > > When you first logged into your RSTS/E account you were immediately > talking to the BASIC-PLUS interpreter, more or less like to talk to a shell > interpreter today. > > READY > > was the output given to you. > > If you typed in the line without a line number, the line was executed > immediately, so you could use it as a "calculator": > > Print 5*3 > > would give you "15" as an answer. If you typed in a line number at the > beginning of the line it stored the command in line order: > > 10 Let A=3 > 20 Let B=5 > 30 Print A*B > 40 END > > Run > > would give you the same answer, but the values of "A" and "B" would stay > in memory as would the rest of the program. > > With BASIC-PLUS you did not need an editor (you could use one, but you did > not NEED it). You did not have to know what a compiler was or a Linker or > know how to use a fancy debugger. > > Students could start writing programs (albeit sometimes crappy programs) > from day 1. > > On the other hand I taught a group of electrical technology students a > course in how to write FORTRAN. I was allowed eight weeks (a summer > course) instead of the traditional 13 weeks. Even I thought this was > crazy, but the administration told me it had been done many times before. > > The administration lied. > > Most of the students just got past the stage of being able to edit, > compile and link a simple program before the course was over. > So BASIC has a lot of detractors, mostly due to the infamous "GOTO". But > BASIC-PLUS also allowed you to write and call subroutines and functions. > > So here is to you, BASIC! You moved a lot of people forward. > > md > > On 05/01/2024 4:04 PM EDT Jeffry Smith <jsm...@alum.mit.edu> wrote: > > > > https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/us-government-auctions-5-34-petaflop-cheyenne-supercomputer/ > > > Useful for running your Basic programs > https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/the-basic-programming-language-turns-60/ > > Jeff > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ >
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