BASIC: A Computer Programming Language
Computer programming has
its own language, and that’s just the beginning of the software
adventure. There are many different languages in computer programming,
and all of them have their own purposes. In order to understand the
importance of computer programming languages, knowing them, and tweaking
them, one has to understand the importance of computer programming.
Computer programming produces software packages, among other things, to
meet our needs. We may need software for accounting, making photos
bigger or smaller, or editing our home videos. Behind all these software
packages are the computer programmers who use their individual
languages in order to create the software.
One such computer
programming language is the Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction
Code, or BASIC. BASIC is actually composed of many different kinds of
programming languages that are actually higher level than most other
languages. This BASIC family of computer programming languages was first
designed in the 1960’s, and was originally made for non-science people
to gain better access to computers. During that time, using a computer
required that a person write customized software, a task that only
mathematicians and scientists were equipped to do. The BASIC language
was therefore a bridge for people of other professions to take advantage
of the power of computers.
When the 1970’s came, the BASIC
language, whether in its original form or a variant of it, spread onto
microcomputers; and by the 1980’s, even home computers could be run in
BASIC. Today, BASIC remains popular, as it serves as the basis for many
of the more modern programming languages that have been developed in the
wake of advanced operating systems and the Internet.
When it
was originally conceived, BASIC was meant for beginners: it was a
language that people could use easily, whether or not they were educated
in mathematics and the sciences. The language also had to be a general
purpose one, in that it had to serve many different needs, and not only
those that mathematicians and scientists required. The root language of
BASIC also had to allow for advanced features to be plugged on as
experts grew more and more adept in it, and as the language found
further use in many other fields. BASIC was also meant to be
interactive, and was designed to show error messages that were clear and
friendly; that is, these error messages had to completely explain what
the problem was, which would hopefully allow the user to fix it faster
and easier.
When it was first released, moreover, BASIC was free
of charge, which allowed the language to spread much faster. Once the
language spread much faster, it was also easy to modify it and correct
errors. BASIC was also distributed to a few high schools in order to
promote it faster. Thanks to this widespread use of the language, BASIC
was soon implemented on several microcomputers, and by several software
manufacturers.
Despite its success, BASIC has had its
dissenters. For instance, some programmers find that its scripts do not
show proper programming practices, and the language itself is too slow,
or sometimes even too simple. Despite all these, however, BASIC has
continued to thrive, succeed, and evolve, and has thus become a good
tool to introduce beginner programmers to the concept of coding and
computer programming.
These are only a few facts about the BASIC
language. For more information on BASIC, read and do your own research
through several key pages online, or using computer programming books.