[Info-vax] Back to BASICs

[Chris Townley]

On 05/10/2021 11:06, Henry Crun wrote:

> DEC BASIC required a minimum of (IIRC) one line number.
> A common story was of a programer who wrote:
> 1 ! Todays date
> 32767 end
> 
> and then reported to his manager "The program is ready, except for some 
> routines in the middle."
> 
DEC Basic did not later need any line numbers. If you wanted to use the 
(why?) you had to have one at the top

I recall when I had an Atari ST in the 80s the supplied Basic (on disk) 
was useless, so I ended up buying a ROM cartridge that had (ISTR) Fast 
Basic, which was an outstandingly modern procedural Basic that didn't 
use line numbers, and provided a good base when later moving onto DEC 
Basic in the 90s. Sadly when I sold the ST and bought a PC I was stuck 
with the horrible GW Basic from MS



-- 
Chris