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3.3 KiB
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23 lines
3.3 KiB
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>BASIC</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../B.html" title="B"/><link rel="previous" href="baroque.html" title="baroque"/><link rel="next" href="batbelt.html" title="batbelt"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">BASIC</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="baroque.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">B</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="batbelt.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="BASIC"/><dt xmlns="" id="BASIC"><b>BASIC</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/bay'·sic/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's
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experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many years
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was the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers. Edsger W. Dijkstra
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observed in <i class="citetitle">Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal
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Perspective</i> that “<span class="quote">It is practically impossible to teach
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good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC:
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as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of
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regeneration.</span>” This is another case (like
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<a href="../P/Pascal.html"><i class="glossterm">Pascal</i></a>) of the cascading
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<a href="../L/lossage.html"><i class="glossterm">lossage</i></a> that happens when a language deliberately
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designed as an educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can
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write short BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily;
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writing anything longer (a) is very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits
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that will make it harder to use more powerful languages well. This
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wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on
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low-end micros in the 1980s. As it is, it probably ruined tens of
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thousands of potential wizards.</p></dd><dd><p>[1995: Some languages called “<span class="quote">BASIC</span>” aren't quite this
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nasty any more, having acquired Pascal- and C-like procedures and control
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structures and shed their line numbers. —ESR]</p><p>BASIC stands for “<span class="quote">Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction
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Code</span>”. Earlier versions of this entry claiming this was a later
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<a href="backronym.html"><i class="glossterm">backronym</i></a> were incorrect.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="baroque.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../B.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="batbelt.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">baroque </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> batbelt</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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