few days ago The BASIC programming language has reached 60 years. As its name suggests, we are talking about a simple, high-level language whose intention was to make programming as easy as possible even for non-experts in the field. And although it took several years to consolidate, he eventually wrote an undisputed success story whose influence resonates more or less directly to this day.

The reason his name is capitalized is because it is an abbreviation, to of bbeginners ONll-purpose Yessymbolic Yeahinstructions Code, that is, a multipurpose instructional code (programming language) for beginners that defines the original purpose of John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz, the creators of Dartmouth BASIC, the first version of this language that saw the light of day at Dartmouth. College 60 years ago.

At the time, low-level programming languages ​​were common, and I think it’s important to clarify the difference between high-level and low-level programming languages ​​before continuing to review the history of BASIC, as misinterpretation can lead to huge misconceptions. In an exceptionally reduced version, each of the two paradigms consists of:

• A low-level programming language: its instructions are those of the processor it is programmed for, making them more complex.
• A high-level programming language: introduces layers of abstraction between machine and code and provides commands and syntax close to Western speech (generally English), making it easier to learn and interpret.

In case you were wondering, yes There are also intermediate level programming languageswith C as its largest exponent, and are characterized by being high-level but also allowing the use of low-level instructions typical of the processor for which it is programmed.

Image: Rafax

Hello world!

To better understand the difference, there is a common exercise for students when learning a new programming language. It’s a fairly simple exercise, as it consists of displaying the text “Hello, world!” (Hello world!). So, Let’s look at the difference between the three programming languageslow level (assembler), high level with medium complexity (C) and high level specially designed for beginners (BASIC).

Hello world! in assembler
org 0x100
mov dx, msg
mov ah, 9
int 0x21
mov ah, 0x4c
int 0x21
msg db 'Hello, World!', 0x0d, 0x0a, '$'

Source (edited to remove comments).

Hello world! in C
#include
int main() {
printf("Hello, World!");
return 0;
}


Source (edited to remove comments).

Hello world! in BASIC

PRINT "Hello, World!"

High-level languages ​​are not better than low-level languages, and vice versa., each type has its strengths and weaknesses, so the choice of one type or another must always be limited to what is best for each project. As you might have guessed from this simple example, BASIC certainly lives up to its name.

GAMBAS development environment. Image: Viferico

As stated at the beginning, The first version of this programming language was created at Dartmouth in the 1960s.with the aim of bringing programming (and thus the use of computer resources) closer to all people with an interest – the need to use the computing capacity of these first computer systems, but who did not have the necessary knowledge to do so. using a programming language designed primarily by and for engineers.

This first version arrived at the right time, at the gates of the microcomputer, which had its best moments between the late sixties and the seventies and eighties, times we have already told you about on previous occasions. We recently remembered the Z80, one of the best and most loved and remembered processors in history, and the truth is that if we talk about computers in the late seventies and early eighties, BASIC and Z80 regularly went hand in hand.

For many, owning a computer in the 1980s was synonymous with learning BASIC, because the operating system of many of these computers, including the unforgettable ZX, offered us an interface based on this programming language. Do you remember (if you’ve experienced it, of course) commands like Load, Save, CLS, Print, etc.? Well, they were all typical of the BASIC implementations for each of these computers. You can see it in the following picture:

Log on to some of the most popular computers from the first half of the 1980s.

The four images are taken from online emulators of these systems. Below, in case you felt the call of nostalgia, are the links:

• ZX Spectrum 128 +2
• Amstrad CPC 6128
• Commodore 64
• MSX

So although the most common use of these operating systems was to use said command to start loading a game, Curiosity has driven many of us to read a computer manual and find in it an introductory guide to BASIC programming. I’m not saying that these were better or worse times, but for many they marked the beginning of a hobby-passion that in many cases continues to this day.

Microsoft and BASIC

On the occasion of Vangelis’ death, we remembered that Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in April 1975 and was born with the first commercial goal of developing and selling a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800, the home computer that in 1974 gave a great starting signal for the expansion of microcomputers. Allen and Gates were very aware of what was going on and the need for a programming language for this revolutionary device, so they quickly got to work and even before the company was founded they had their first product ready, Altair BASIC, which would also be the first of the wider family, Microsoft BASIC.

In those early days Microsoft specialized in interpreters and compilers of programming languages, also paying attention to COBOL and Fortran, and it was not until 1979 that they expanded their range to also address operating systems. But by then the company was already international (they opened their first international office in Japan in 1978), which gives us a clear idea of ​​how successful the founders’ commitment to emerging microcomputers and programming languages ​​was. said platform.

In many early 1980s computers (such as the Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore, and MSX I mentioned above) integrated the operating system into read-only memory (ROM), this means that it was not necessary to install an operating system or use an external disk to load it and thus the ability to use a computer, so a large basis for Microsoft’s initial success was precisely negotiating the license of its BASIC interpreters with the manufacturers of said device.

At the same time, Microsoft also set its sights on operating systems (a market in which it had already de facto found BASIC implementations that functioned as an OS). The first solid step in this direction was the then very popular CP/M (originally intended for the Z80). A move that has been completed (and has come full circle) with the release of GW-BASIC in the middle of the fizz, in 1983.

Visual Basic 3.0. Image: WinWorld

The present and future of BASIC

BASIC’s light began to fade in the late 1980s, so everything indicated that his days were numbered. However, Microsoft bet on it back in the early 1990s. In this sense, he created QBASIC as an evolution of GW-BASIC and also completely retuned it to a new paradigm of graphical interfaces and event-oriented programming (although during At. once Microsoft claimed it was object-oriented) with Visual Basic. In its early versions, the code was quite similar to BASIC code, but changed in later versions, a difference that culminated in its final version, Visual Basic 6, in 1998.

Its next evolutionary step was Visual Basic .NET (now VB .NET)currently in force (it is integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio and adapts its predecessor Redmond .NET framework) and which, although not among the most used and requested programming languages, is still a good tool for those looking for a simple and versatile programming language.

But the BASIC user doesn’t just live on Microsoft. Although its use is clearly in the minority at the moment, we still find projects that constantly update it. The most remarkable is undoubtedly the SHRIMP (Gboth ONalmost Means BASSic) which is available for a large number of Linux distributions and which takes many elements of this programming language but adapts them to newer paradigms such as object-oriented programming and adds practical tools such as compiling real.