Re: The birth of BASIC

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#623686

From: hanc...
Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2018 19:09

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On Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 2:39:59 PM UTC-4, Dave Garland wrote:

> > I always thought of BASIC as "poor man's FORTRAN."
> > 
> 
> I learned Fortran II in 1965, and BASIC in the early 1980s. BASIC 
> always felt like a dialect of Fortran (that could handle strings 
> decently) to me.

I don't know if BASIC's designers had Fortran in mind, but BASIC
definitely mirrors Fortran.  Generally, BASIC is easier to use
than Fortran for simple applications; for heavy-duty stuff,
Fortran is better.

For younger children, BASIC was easier to teach and learn.  
For the _typical_ student, having completed Algebra-II was
usually necessary for best understanding of Fortran; the
REAL/INTEGER variables could cause confusion.

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