BBC BASIC: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:16, 17 February 2025

Revision as of 22:38, 21 April 2025

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===Precursor languages===

Prior to 1957, programming was done using [[machine code]] or [[assembly language]]. These were specific to a processor and not portable.

Then [[high-level programming language]]s were developed to allow programs to be more easily transferred between computers:

*[[FORTRAN]] (short for '''FOR'''mula '''TRAN'''slation), developed by a team led by [[John Backus]] at IBM<ref>{{cite web |title=Fortran (a history) |url=https://www.ibm.com/history/fortran |publisher=IBM |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> was commercially released in 1957.

*[[LISP]] (short for '''LIS'''t '''P'''rocessing), invented by [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]]<ref>{{cite web |title=John McCarthy |url=https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/person/mccarthy-john-12301?query=lisp&resultIndex=7 |publisher=MIT Museum |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction to LISP |date=23 November 2021 |url=https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-to-lisp/ |publisher=GeeksforGeeks |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> in 1958.

*[[COBOL]] (short for '''CO'''mmon-'''B'''usiness-'''O'''riented '''L'''anguage) came from the 1959 [[Conference on Data Systems Languages]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Birth of COBOL |url=https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-history/after-eniac/part-4/ |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> resulting in a [[compiler]] available in 1962.

*[[ALGOL 60]] (short for '''ALGO'''rithmic '''L'''anguage), designed by an international committee of the [[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM). The initial ALGOL 58 was followed by the publication of the Revised Report in 1960<ref>{{cite journal |title=Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60 |date=1963 |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/366193.366201 |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |doi=10.1145/366193.366201 |access-date=7 January 2024 |last1=Backus |first1=J. W. |last2=Bauer |first2=F. L. |last3=Green |first3=J. |last4=Katz |first4=C. |last5=McCarthy |first5=J. |last6=Perlis |first6=A. J. |last7=Rutishauser |first7=H. |last8=Samelson |first8=K. |last9=Vauquois |first9=B. |last10=Wegstein |first10=J. H. |last11=Van Wijngaarden |first11=A. |last12=Woodger |first12=M. |journal=Communications of the ACM |volume=6 |pages=1–17 }}</ref> (hence ALGOL 60).

Many more computer languages were developed during the 1960-1980 period. Few are now in regular use. Those more generally known were [[ALGOL W]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Algol W Language Description |url=https://www.algol60.org/docsW/algolw.pdf |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> at [[Stanford University]], [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Pascal (programming language) |url=https://codedocs.org/what-is/pascal-programming-language |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Michael Shave |title=Data Structures |date=1975 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=0-07-084059-8 |pages=132–136}}</ref> plus [[POP-2]]<ref>{{cite web |author1=R. M. Burstall |author2=J. S. Collins |author3=R. J. Popplestone |title=The POP-2 Papers |url=https://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/staffpriv/ok/pop2.d/POP-2_Papers_1968.pdf |publisher=Oliver & Boyd Ltd |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> at the [[University of Edinburgh]].

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[[K&R C]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kernighan |first1=Brian W. |last2=Ritchie |first2=Dennis M. |title=The C programming language |date=1978 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |___location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |isbn=0-13-110163-3 |edition=1st}}</ref> was designed as the language to write the [[UNIX]] operating system. This was formalised as [[ANSI C]]<ref>{{cite book |author1=Brian W. Kernighan |author2=Dennis M.Ritchie |title=The C Programming Language |date=1988 |publisher=Prentice Hall |isbn=0-13-110362-8 |edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ritchie |first1=Dennis M. |title=The Development of the C Language |url=https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> from which [[C++]] and [[Java (programming language)|JAVA]] were later derived.

At [[Dartmouth College]], two mathematics professors<ref>{{cite web |title=Event History |url=https://www.dartmouth.edu/basicfifty/events.html |publisher=Dartmouth College |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> wanted all students to be able to program on their new Collegecollege computer. The existing high-level languages were used by professionals. In 1964, they created [[Dartmouth BASIC]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Dartmouth College BASIC Instruction Manual |url=https://www.dartmouth.edu/basicfifty/basicmanual_1964.pdf |publisher=Dartmouth College |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref> (short for '''B'''eginner’s '''A'''ll-Purpose '''S'''ymbolic '''I'''nstruction '''C'''ode) to be a computer language anyone could use. Having a formula -based [[syntactic]] structure, it is a simplified FORTRAN.

Together, [[Paul Allen]] and [[Bill Gates]] developed BASIC for the [[Altair 8800]]. Development continued to become [[IBM]]'s [[BASIC A]] and [[Microsoft BASIC]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=McCracken |first1=Harry |title=Fifty years of BASIC, the programming language that made computers personal |url=https://time.com/69316/basic/ |access-date=7 January 2024 |date=29 April 2014}}</ref>