Programming language BASIC is 60 years old

i don’t know. so long as you add a good comment, i think it’s okay

# this function calls the other function
# warning: but it's on this object now.
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Replacing an 8088 with a V20 usually gave at least a 10% speed bump, even without using the extra registers/instructions, but the three byte pre-fetch cache was incompatible with programs that rewrote the code as they ran for copy protection and anti-debug, like Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3.

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Well, there goes my productivity out the window, this afternoon :grin:

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It was Forensic Art, I think any experienced programmer that looked behind the scene might be concerned with what I was doing with my global variables.

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The 8088 had a 4-byte instruction prefetch queue, and references suggest this was also duplicated in the NEC V20. Code incompatibility probably had more to do with the different internal architecture of the V20 that made it somewhat faster than the 8088.

The author of Code Complete might like to have a word… blink

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Especially before breakfast :wink:

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Well, they do say that one of the most difficult aspects of computer programming is naming things! :slight_smile:

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I’m going to say it…

I miss Visual BASIC.

As a tool for knocking out prototypes and interface candidates it was second to none.

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Only ever heard of it via a strange little microcomputer in the UK that was designed to compete with the ZX81 - the Jupiter ACE; it’s unique selling point being that the built in language was FORTH rather than BASIC. The ACE vanished without trace.

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It’s been a while, but I believe the V20’s prefetch had advantages over the 8088’s. The other main difference was that the V20 had an extra address math unit, and didn’t waste cycles on address calculations like the 8088. (8088: “Let’s see, it’s segment override, indexed with an offset, and … wait, where was I?” :smiley:)

I never saw much point in the V20’s 8080 mode, unless someone really had to run CP/M.

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I vaguely remember hearing about the ACE through a British microcomputing magazine. And I became aware of FORTH through the ZX81 - someone made a FORTH ROM for it that I never got a chance to try.

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Speaking of British microcomputing… Not specifically about basic, but still… surprised no one has posted this yet…

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Now look here, I will not have any bad-mouthing of CP/M. It did what it could with what it had. Lots of, well, memories.

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What’s up with gory pic? Am I missing something? Is Boing Boing getting its graphics from an algorithm?

Man, I was really good at BASIC. It all made sense to me. The stuff I was doing on the Apple IIe, including some very rudimentary animation, I was pretty proud of. In fact my mom said my teacher from Middle School was still using my work as examples when I was in college (which is both an honor and sad, because those Apples were relics when I was in middle school!)

In HS I remember making a Tic-Tac-Toe game from scratch. I should have tried my hand at an RPG. Had I seen Nethack, I would have liked to try to make something like that.

Alas, I did not have a talent for more complicated languages like C++, or rather I had a lot more going on with my other studies I didn’t apply myself and didn’t do great in class. Doh. Maybe I should have stuck with it, having someone who is an artist, but also can program, would have been a boon, I think. Had I been born 15 or so year earlier, I think I would have loved doing some of the early games’ graphics.

Anyway - remember having a lot of fun with BASIC.

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For me, it was a gateway for batch files and QuickBBS.

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Oh my, those were so fun!

BASIC is the only programming language I came close to. But I can edit an SQL query :slight_smile:

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I work with COBOL data files daily!

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I guess that just goes to show the durability of some languages!

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