Groups > comp.programming > #1938

Re: Popular Languages

From	"BartC" <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups	comp.programming
Subject	Re: Popular Languages
Date	2012-07-13 20:03 +0100
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<jtpreh$952$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(6 earlier) <41a15e66-890b-413b-912c-bc14a96b7eb6@q29g2000vby.googlegroups.com> <1asc2cr6o9zwe$.10f677loigfhs.dlg@40tude.net> <72cb86f8-4d34-4348-9d68-fb8e0395581b@googlegroups.com> <jtki3n$cd0$1@dont-email.me> <M_ydneLpBotjiZ3NnZ2dnUVZ7vWdnZ2d@giganews.com>

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"Leif Roar Moldskred" <leifm@dimnakorr.com> wrote in message 
news:M_ydneLpBotjiZ3NnZ2dnUVZ7vWdnZ2d@giganews.com...
> BartC <bc@freeuk.com> wrote:
>>
>> (So anyone who's ever had to write a set of step-by-step instructions, 
>> which
>> is what Basic mostly was, can never be a (good) programmer?)
>
> The problem with Basic wasn't so much its (typically) interpreted
> nature or its use of line-numbers, but its lack of modularisation and
> its reliance on unstructured flow control through the use of goto, on
> goto, goosub and on gosub. Add in a lack of typing and variable scope,
> and you got a real mess real quick.

Sure. But throwing in the half-dozen control statements need to fix all that 
would have been trivial.

(And who said it didn't having typing? You have, at least, numbers and 
strings, and arrays of those. That's plenty to get started with.)

>> It sounds just a bad implementation.
>
> At the time, _all_ the Basic implementations were bad.
>
> While it's true that you might have a bad implementation of a good
> language, it's not true that it's all down to the quality of the
> implementation and that language doesn't matter. There are aspects of
> computer languages that can make good implementations difficult if not
> impossible to write, and so the nature of the language will affect the
> typical quality of its implementations.

Basic looks, now, ridiculously simple to implement. It appears to use static 
typing, so fast interpreters and simple compilers are easily possible.

But it seems to have got a bad reputation, there is no standardised 
language, and there are bloated monstrosities around such as VB.NET which 
would put anybody off.

-- 
Bartc

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Popular Languages adam79 <79adam79@gmail.com> - 2012-06-11 19:23 -0700
  Re: Popular Languages BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-06-11 21:56 -0500
    Re: Popular Languages adam79 <79adam79@gmail.com> - 2012-06-11 21:39 -0700
      Re: Popular Languages adam79 <79adam79@gmail.com> - 2012-06-11 21:45 -0700
    Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-19 09:17 -0700
  Re: Popular Languages Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-06-12 10:25 +0100
    Re: Popular Languages adam79 <79adam79@gmail.com> - 2012-06-13 00:18 -0700
      Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-19 09:19 -0700
  Re: Popular Languages Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@nbi.dk> - 2012-06-15 10:29 +0200
    Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-19 09:16 -0700
      Re: Popular Languages "Ant" <not@home.today> - 2012-06-19 18:44 +0100
        Re: Popular Languages Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@nbi.dk> - 2012-06-20 09:06 +0200
        Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-20 03:01 -0700
          Re: Popular Languages "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2012-06-20 12:18 +0200
            Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-20 10:12 -0700
              Re: Popular Languages "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2012-06-20 20:59 +0200
                Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-20 12:15 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2012-06-20 22:53 +0200
                Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-21 12:25 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2012-06-21 22:30 +0200
                Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-22 04:45 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2012-06-22 14:18 +0200
                Re: Popular Languages Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201206.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2012-06-22 18:16 +0200
                Re: Popular Languages gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-23 11:07 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2012-06-22 16:41 +0000
                Re: Popular Languages lordwilliams1972@gmail.com - 2012-07-11 09:28 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-11 19:53 +0100
                Re: Popular Languages nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com - 2012-07-13 04:09 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-13 13:10 +0100
                Re: Popular Languages Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-07-18 04:27 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-07-13 07:30 -0500
                Re: Popular Languages "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-13 20:03 +0100
                Re: Popular Languages "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-13 21:50 +0100
                Re: Popular Languages malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-07-14 13:39 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-07-14 13:34 -0700
                Re: Popular Languages "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-14 22:43 +0100
                Re: Popular Languages "K.J. Williams" <lordwilliams1972@gmail.com> - 2012-07-19 19:30 -0700

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