Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register

Groups > comp.lang.basic.misc > #303

Re: Which basic ?

Show all headers | View raw

Auric__ wrote:
> Helmut_Meukel wrote:
>
>> Doesn't the book say which computer or OS?
>> There should be some reference to the flavour of the language or the
>> target machine.
>> Atari, Commodore, some C/PM machine, even probably HP Basic (later
>> renamed to HT Basic and ported to the PC).
>
> A lot of books through... let's say the late 80's... did their best to be 
> "generic" BASIC, which typically meant they were written in Microsoft 
> BASIC, and would often work without change on any MS BASIC machine -- and 
> since the popular PCs of the day mostly used MS BASIC (Commodore 64 and 
> Apple 2 come to mind), they were fairly "universal" to their target 
> audiences. See, for example, David Ahl's books.
>

I started programming with an HP 9815 S, and looked into a TRS 80/II for
private use. So I purchased the Basic manual for this machine, but
was unhappy with the restriction to 2 characters for variables and some
other shortcomings. So I never buyed the TRS 80.
Later I came to FORTRAN 66 on a HP 1000 realtime machine and got
distracted from Basic for some years.
While still programming 2 HP 1000 systems now in Fortran77, I looked
into programming PCs in dBase II and TurboPascal, but finally came to
QB4, QB4.5, then Basic PDS 7.1. That was in the late 80's and early 90's.
I also programmed a HP 86B in HP-Basic, and about '93 I switched to
VB-DOS on PCs.
I never read independent books about programming, only the manuals that
came with the programming languages, except in one case: a book about
Fortran which was a waste of time. The Manuals that came with the
HP1000's FORTRAN 6X and Fortran 7X compilers were way better.
I learned database programming from the manual that came with HP's
Image1000/II database subsystem.
The HP 1000 set the standards for me in performance and multitasking/
multiuser capabilities and until about '99/2000 I still compared the
PCs to the long gone HP 1000.
My first home computer was a PC with an I386SX processor, my christmas
'89 present for me. ;-)

Helmut.

Back to comp.lang.basic.misc | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar

Thread

Which basic ? "himself" <some@where.com> - 2012-08-08 05:34 +0000
  Re: Which basic ? "Auric__" <not.my.real@email.address> - 2012-08-08 10:10 +0000
    Re: Which basic ? Helmut_Meukel <Helmut_Meukel@bn-hof.invalid> - 2012-08-08 13:45 +0200
      Re: Which basic ? "Auric__" <not.my.real@email.address> - 2012-08-08 12:47 +0000
        Re: Which basic ? Helmut_Meukel <Helmut_Meukel@bn-hof.invalid> - 2012-08-09 22:48 +0200
    Re: Which basic ? "himself" <some@where.com> - 2012-08-08 13:56 +0000
      Re: Which basic ? "Auric__" <not.my.real@email.address> - 2012-08-08 20:28 +0000
  Re: Which basic ? ralph <nt_consulting64@yahoo.com> - 2012-08-08 06:43 -0500
    Re: Which basic ? "himself" <some@where.com> - 2012-08-08 13:07 +0000
      Re: Which basic ? ralph <nt_consulting64@yahoo.com> - 2012-08-08 08:50 -0500
      Re: Which basic ? Todd Vargo <tlvargo@sbcglobal.netz> - 2012-08-08 19:57 -0400
      Re: Which basic ? nospam <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-08-09 20:36 +0100
        Re: Which basic ? "himself" <some@where.com> - 2012-08-09 23:49 +0000
          Re: Which basic ? "news@rtrussell.co.uk" <news@rtrussell.co.uk> - 2012-08-10 09:12 -0700
            Re: Which basic ? "Auric__" <not.my.real@email.address> - 2012-08-11 00:12 +0000
              Re: Which basic ? "news@rtrussell.co.uk" <news@rtrussell.co.uk> - 2012-08-12 04:48 -0700
                Re: Which basic ? "Auric__" <not.my.real@email.address> - 2012-08-12 20:07 +0000

csiph-web