[Info-vax] BASIC (was Re: 64-bit)

[Simon Clubley]

On 2024-01-12, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> On 1/11/2024 2:42 PM, Dan Cross wrote:
>> In article <unpa1b$3316l$2 at dont-email.me>,
>> Dave Froble  <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>> On 1/10/2024 9:28 PM, bill wrote:
>>>> On 1/10/2024 7:02 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>> The world has evolved.
>>>>
>>>> Exactly.  BASIC also evolved, but better languages have passed it by.
>>>
>>> I confess to curiosity.  In what ways has other languages passed by Basic?
>>
>> Usually the answer to this is going to be some combination of
>> better abstraction facilities, better safety properties, more
>> capable and ergonomic libraries, etc.
>
> Which then asks the question, are such really better?  Perhaps some of that is 
> more opinion than fact.
>
> Below, when I write Basic, I'm referring to DEC/Compaq/HP/VSI Basic.
>
>> VSI BASIC appears to have a few useful things like static type
>> definitions, functions, etc, and it frees the programmer from
>> _having_ to specify e.g. line numbers.  But it doesn't seem to
>> have a lot of support for other abstraction facilities like
>> modules, classes, or anything of that nature.
>
> What amuses me about that is that when people talk about "classes", I don't have 
> a clue what they are talking about.  Perhaps I do, if the case is new names for 
> old concepts.  That is something I didn't like about Microsoft, they seemed to 
> like re-naming concepts.
>

This is absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft. It is a general language
concept/construct.

Sorry David, but you don't understand this and the other items Dan lists,
then you are not qualified to judge the relative merits of other languages
to BASIC.

[Snip other examples]

>
>> I suppose I would turn the question around and ask what's about
>> BASIC makes it more suitable than other languages for particular
>> types of programs?
>
> For me personally, I really like the syntax of the language.  When I have to 
> attempt to read C code I'm easily confused.  Many other languages seem to copy 
> the syntax of C.
>

I suggest you look at the Wirth-style languages then. They are nothing
like C.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.