[Info-vax] The Future of Programming Languages and Web browsers

[Neil Rieck]

On Nov 20, 1:22 pm, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
wrote:
> Tom Wade wrote:
>

> Of course there are.  Don't forget that "BASIC" is an acronym for
> Beginners Allpurpose Symbolic Instruction Code.  It's the right tool for
> some jobs!
>
> BASIC has introduced a good many people to programming.  Some stopped
> there and some moved on.

I, too, am not a big fan of BASIC but DEC-BASIC (or whatever they call
it today) contains features way beyond what a beginner would ever use.
First off, there is no interpreter on any platform higher than VAX.
Built-in support for RMS (sequential, relative and index) was an
unexpected surprise. There is no requirement for line numbers and an
option statement will require you declare all your variables (aka no
kid stuff). MAT (matrix) statements are borrowed from FORTRAN and
fixed size (mapped) strings aid in laying out records. I have become
fond of doing file-io routines in block statement like this:

WHEN ERROR IN
    get #15, regardless
    yada = 0
USE
    yada = err
END WHEN
select yada
    case 0      ! no error
    case 11     ! EOF
        something
    case 155   ! RNF
        something
    case else
        something
end select

One really cool thing with DEC-BASIC is something you see in every
other so-called DEC language. The ability to include, then call,
system functions.

    %include "starlet" %from %library "sys$library:basic$starlet"
    %include "$ssdef" %from %library "sys$library:basic$starlet"
    %include "$uaidef" %from %library "sys$library:basic$starlet"

Which means you can call sys$qio from within this language.

NSR