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A comment on Writing that changed how I think about programming languages. Parent comment

Re:Writing that changed how I think about programming languages by musicale on Wednesday May 14, 2025 @11:24PM (#43991531)
BASIC variables are typed. BASIC was also originally designed for printing terminals, so there was no 24 line limit.

Modern BASICs are suitable for writing larger programs.

Also seen today on HN:

"I Miss Visual Basic" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43988853

"The history and legacy of Visual Basic" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43949855

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Writing that changed how I think about programming languages by WalterBright on Thursday May 15, 2025 @04:42AM (#43993062)
The BASIC I used was BASIC-10 on the PDP-10 in the 70's. It wasn't much improved over the original.

The 24 line thing was a limitation of the glass tty, not BASIC.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Writing that changed how I think about programming languages by musicale on Friday May 16, 2025 @10:39PM (#44011633)
Having functions that fit on one screen is still a good idea I think.

My point was that printing, teletype-style terminals don't have an intrinsic vertical space limit like video display terminals (and eventually the printouts can get quite long).

But now that I think about it, perhaps the designers of BASIC might have been thinking of making it easy for a beginner to spend an afternoon or two learning how to write something comparable to a short FORTRAN program that might fit on a small deck of 80 column (72 with sequence number) punched cards.

[ Parent | on HN ]