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

[Bob Eager]

On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:27:12 -0500, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

> Bob Eager wrote:
>> On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:45:23 -0800, Neil Rieck wrote:
>> 
>>> 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
>> 
>> MAT statements were in the Kemeny and Kurtz BASIC back in 1970....!
>> 
>> 
> Not to mention that standard Fortran did not have, or use, "MAT/MATRIX
> statements".  It was DIMENSION all the way back to Fortran II. When I
> first encountered BASIC some years later, it was DIM IIRC; e.g. you
> wrote DIM X(125).

Same here. K&K BASIC used DIM to declare arrays, and MAT statements to 
manipulate them.

A loooong time ago!

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