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Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC

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  Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-09-02 09:57 +0000
    Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-09-02 12:25 +0100
    Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-02 19:19 +0100
    Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-09-02 18:21 +0000
      Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-02 20:51 +0100
        Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-09-02 22:58 +0300
          Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-09-02 22:20 +0200
          Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Bruce Horrocks <07.013@scorecrow.com> - 2014-09-04 00:21 +0100
            Re: Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-09-04 08:44 +0300

#4635 — Lost Lessons from 8-Bit BASIC

http://prog21.dadgum.com/198.html

   Unstructured programming with GOTO is the stuff of legend, as are
   calling subroutines by line number--GOSUB 1000--and setting global
   variables as a mechanism for passing parameters.

   The little language that fueled the home computer revolution has been
   long buried beneath an avalanche of derision, or at least disregarded as
   a relic from primitive times. That's too bad, because while the language
   itself has serious shortcomings, the overall 8-bit BASIC experience has
   high points that are worth remembering.

   It's hard to separate the language and the computers it ran it on;
   flipping the power switch, even without a disk drive attached, resulted
   in a BASIC prompt. If nothing else, it could be treated as a calculator:
   PRINT "seconds in a week: ",60*60*24*7 or PRINT COS(2)/2 Notice how the
   cosine function is always available for use. No importing a library. No
   qualifying it with MATH.TRIG.

   ...

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#4641

In article <M+OF1XG8YUT6lL+boaIY66mA@dont-email.me>, Rich
<rich@example.invalid> wrote:

> http://prog21.dadgum.com/198.html
> 
>    Unstructured programming with GOTO is the stuff of legend, as are
>    calling subroutines by line number--GOSUB 1000--and setting global
>    variables as a mechanism for passing parameters.

Let's hope it remains a legend, then.

-- 
"Once you adopt the unix paradigm, the variants cease to be a problem - you
bitch, of course, but that's because bitching is fun, unlike M$ OS's, where 
bitching is required to keep your head from exploding." - S Stremler in afc

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#4654

On 2014-09-02 10:57, Rich wrote:
> http://prog21.dadgum.com/198.html
> 
>    Unstructured programming with GOTO is the stuff of legend, as are
>    calling subroutines by line number--GOSUB 1000--and setting global
>    variables as a mechanism for passing parameters.
> 
>    The little language that fueled the home computer revolution has been
>    long buried beneath an avalanche of derision, or at least disregarded as
>    a relic from primitive times. That's too bad, because while the language
>    itself has serious shortcomings, the overall 8-bit BASIC experience has
>    high points that are worth remembering.
> 
>    It's hard to separate the language and the computers it ran it on;
>    flipping the power switch, even without a disk drive attached, resulted
>    in a BASIC prompt. If nothing else, it could be treated as a calculator:
>    PRINT "seconds in a week: ",60*60*24*7 or PRINT COS(2)/2 Notice how the
>    cosine function is always available for use. No importing a library. No
>    qualifying it with MATH.TRIG.
A basic function I wrote in 1988:

6000 DEFine FuNction atan2(si,co)
6010 LOCal s,c,t
6020 s=ABS(si) : c=ABS(co)
6030 IF s>c : t=PI/2-ATAN(c/s) : ELSE t=ATAN(s/c)
6040 IF co<0 : t=PI-t
6050 IF si<0 : t=-t
6060 RETurn t
6070 END DEFine atan2
6080 :

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#4655

On 2014-09-02, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
> http://prog21.dadgum.com/198.html
>
>  It's hard to separate the language and the computers it ran it on;
>  flipping the power switch, even without a disk drive attached,
>  resulted in a BASIC prompt. If nothing else, it could be treated as
>  a calculator: PRINT "seconds in a week: ",60*60*24*7 or PRINT
>  COS(2)/2 Notice how the cosine function is always available for
>  use. No importing a library. No qualifying it with MATH.TRIG.

I definitely do miss turning on a machine and having a workable system
one second later.  Yeah I know, modern machines do more, blah blah blah,
but instantaneous gratification was pretty fun.  Also cartridges.
Imagine modern hardware with a cartridge slot - how fun!  (They exist.
They're called hot-swappable SCSI drives, or maybe boot from /dev/sdb
usb drives, or equivalent).

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#4662

On 2014-09-02 19:21, RS Wood wrote:
> On 2014-09-02, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
>> http://prog21.dadgum.com/198.html
>>
>>  It's hard to separate the language and the computers it ran it on;
>>  flipping the power switch, even without a disk drive attached,
>>  resulted in a BASIC prompt. If nothing else, it could be treated as
>>  a calculator: PRINT "seconds in a week: ",60*60*24*7 or PRINT
>>  COS(2)/2 Notice how the cosine function is always available for
>>  use. No importing a library. No qualifying it with MATH.TRIG.
> 
> I definitely do miss turning on a machine and having a workable system
> one second later.  Yeah I know, modern machines do more, blah blah blah,
> but instantaneous gratification was pretty fun.  Also cartridges.
> Imagine modern hardware with a cartridge slot - how fun!  (They exist.
> They're called hot-swappable SCSI drives, or maybe boot from /dev/sdb
> usb drives, or equivalent).

Don't the high-end programmable calculators do that sort of thing now?
ISTR a TI Voyage-200 running an emulator for one of the Sinclair
computers (probably the QL).

Speaking of which, the BBC and QL micros ran structured dialects of
basic. The GOTO and GOSUB commands were still there, but weren't
necessary as defined functions and procedures could be used instead. I
wrote a fair few homebrewed modular astronomy and astrodynamics programs
in QL basic.

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#4663

Hils <hils@saynotospam.net>:

> Don't the high-end programmable calculators do that sort of thing now?

Is there any professional use for programmable calculators?


Marko

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#4666

On 2014-09-02, Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> wrote:
> Hils <hils@saynotospam.net>:
>
>> Don't the high-end programmable calculators do that sort of thing now?
>
> Is there any professional use for programmable calculators?

Having found accountancy calculators (with a till roll printout) useful
for checking figures produced by computerised accounting systems I would
say yes, as a sanity check for whatever software the professional
scientist is using.

-- 
If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
If you own a jackhammer, every problem looks like hours of fun

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#4692

On 02/09/2014 20:58, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> Hils <hils@saynotospam.net>:
>
>> Don't the high-end programmable calculators do that sort of thing now?
>
> Is there any professional use for programmable calculators?
>
>
> Marko

Surveying:
<http://www.softwarebydzign.com/index.php?pg=prod2>
<http://www.quickclose.com.au/softindex.html>

-- 
Bruce Horrocks
Surrey
England
(bruce at scorecrow dot com)

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#4694

Bruce Horrocks <07.013@scorecrow.com>:

> On 02/09/2014 20:58, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
>> Is there any professional use for programmable calculators?
>
> Surveying:
> <http://www.softwarebydzign.com/index.php?pg=prod2>
> <http://www.quickclose.com.au/softindex.html>

Seems to me a cell phone would be more useful for surveyors. It's got
GPS, Internet, phone as well as programmability.


Marko

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