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Geek Culture / original BASIC programming language

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Aaron Miller
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 06:04 Edited at: 14th May 2007 02:48
Very interesting really. This is the language I believe to be the original BASIC programming language.

Very interesting.. Here is a code sample off of the website:


And another


And the website is here.

I don't think you can download it anymore though...

-db


96% of the universe appears to be missing.

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Kevin Picone
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Aaron Miller
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 06:49
@Kevin Picone
Was that meant as a "This is what BASIC is, what you showed wasnt" type of a post, or was it a "Here is an addon to that post" post?

-db


Raven
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 07:43
wikipedia has the origins of BASIC and it's decendants, including a timeline iirc

Aaron Miller
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 07:53
Ah.

-db


BatVink
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 10:40 Edited at: 19th Jan 2007 10:41
I started my coding life using Microsoft Basic 1.0 - and it wasn't on a PC! It was a Dragon 32, and I made Tron Light Cycles on it back in 1982



Jeff Miller
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 11:48
Around that same time, 1982 or so, I was using Color Basic on a Radio Shack Color Computer that used your color TV as the monitor. I always liked the various forms of Basic because of their similarity to Fortran, which was the first language I learned in college in 1967.
CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 12:52
Atari 400 BASIC circa 1982-ish
Vink, you stole my oldness! Jeff has us both beat, lawl.

Phaelax
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 14:00
Now I dont feel so old saying I started with QB 1.1 on a 133MHz Cyrix PowerSpec. Anyone even remember cyrix chips? winchip, evergreen, etc...

Van B
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 14:14
Those early 80's seem to be the time when a lot of oldbies got started, I started on ZX81 and Speccy BASIC. Speccy BASIC actually used shortcut keys for everything, like P on it's own would produce PRINT, with symbol shift it would produce '' etc. I remember how weird it was to use a C64 after using a spectrum, but I'm guessing it helped a lot of people learn. I suppose we have to remember that most people could not type very well, the eagle method was prevelant (one finger circling the keyboard until it finds it's prey, then JAB!).

Of all the early incarnations of basic, I would say my favourite was Amstrad CPC basic, it had a good selection of display modes, monitor as standard, and an OK keyboard - just made things feel more professional.

''Stick that in your text and scroll it!.''
BatVink
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 14:57
Quote: "133MHz Cyrix PowerSpec"

Cyrix makes you look old They were pants chips, but at the time not many people knew about the technicalities of a CPU.

Quote: "my favourite was Amstrad CPC basic"

I progressed to an Amstrad PCW8256, which used Mallard Basic, don't know if this was the same language on a different platform? PCWs used a Z80 8-bit processor.



APEXnow
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 15:00 Edited at: 19th Jan 2007 15:03
10 MODE 0
20 INK 0,0
30 BORDER 0,0
40 PLOT 0,0 : DRAW 319, 199
50 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN END
60 GOTO 50

Ooo, Amstrad BASIC, those were the days!

[EDIT] Funny thing was, my favourite command was RENUM

Paul.

Kentaree
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 15:18
Quote: "QB 1.1 on a 133MHz Cyrix PowerSpec"


Pah, I started off with QBasic on a 286, not even sure what Mhz, something like 8 I think...

ESP
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 15:42
Hi APEXnow,

I learnt BASIC on a PDP8L... In those days EVERYTHING was done on paper tape. I remember a BASIC renumber proggie that read one paper tape into an ASR-33 teletype and then output another RENUMBERED tape.

Best thing we ever used it for was to renumber a CECIL compiler (its output was paper tape ) and a VERY early version of Star-Trek.

Anyone remember CECIL?

Robin
CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 16:15
Quote: "Anyone even remember cyrix chips? winchip, evergreen, etc..."

unfortunately, yes...

Raven
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 16:46
Cyrix were a cheap chip, but after using them you quickly figure out why. It honestly was a poor attempt on IBMs part to capture the x86 market again.

APEXnow
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 16:57
Can I assume that's even slower than the NEC V30?

Ric
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 18:26
For bonus points, who can tell me why you got a white on black 'k' in the bottom left corner of the screen when you switched on your ZX81? (Can't remember if it was flashing or not, though.)

heartbone
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 18:29 Edited at: 19th Jan 2007 18:33
Shepardson's BASIC was the best of the early mass market 8-bit BASICs.
00 REM *** PROGRAM.BAS
10 REM DISABLE THE BREAK KEY
20 I=PEEK(16):IF I>127 THEN I=I-128 : POKE 16,I : POKE 53774,I
30 REM DISBALE SYSTEM RESET
40 POKE 580,1
50 REM EXECUTE MACHINE LANGUAGE OPERATION
60 X=USR(ADR("hhh*LVd"),16)
.....

I'm unique, just like everybody else.
Fallout
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 19:23
Ahah! You noobs and your QBasic. I learnt on GWBasic and I suffered ... oh yes, I suffered.


spooky
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 19:27
I too am an oldbie, and used BBC Basic in school. At home I had all sorts of ZX Spectrums and used Speccy BASIC a hell of a lot. Moved up to Z80 machine code for a bit before succumbing to an Amiga and using AMOS.

Boo!
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 19:28
One of my fondest memories of basic was when my shoptech teacher got a print out of some program that was sort of an electronic tutor about offset printing. Sophmore year we had typing class so he broke up the code for each of us to type in a portion, however when he advised us to first run Electric Pencil (a trs-80 WP) and enter it there I attempted to advise him why this would not work. Me being an idiot student and he an instructor we spent the entire semester typing in the darn program. Suprisingly even after we merged all the files it did not run, I wonder why??

APEXnow
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 19:35
Quote: "For bonus points, who can tell me why you got a white on black 'k' in the bottom left corner of the screen when you switched on your ZX81? (Can't remember if it was flashing or not, though.)"


If iirc from when I had my ZX81 (with 16K RAM pack), it stands for K - Keywords.

Paul.

Jeku
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 22:00
1986 - BASIC on the Commodore 64 here. Started at a real early age. When I moved to GWBASIC on the Atari 1040ST, I was amazed that you didn't need line numbers anymore!

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 22:02
Nothing like line numbers when you were trying to squeeze a line of code in somewhere.

APEXnow
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 22:54
Quote: "Nothing like line numbers when you were trying to squeeze a line of code in somewhere."


Hence my favourite command being "RENUM"

Paul.

Pricey
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 22:57
Quote: "For bonus points, who can tell me why you got a white on black 'k' in the bottom left corner of the screen when you switched on your ZX81? (Can't remember if it was flashing or not, though.)"


keyword =)

i still have my ZX81 =)

Dazzag
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 23:06 Edited at: 19th Jan 2007 23:08
Heh heh heh. VB6 and VBA (Excel) are elements of my job, but the main language by far is Thoroughbred Basic. It is an American Unix BASIC. Is one of the Business BASICs (there is one called Universe that I used once that is more directly linked to the original Business BASICs esp. with IBM). It's something like 20 years old. And it has line numbers. Yep, I used line numbers on the speccy and on the ST (STOS), left it a few years, then did the next 12 years or so mainly programming in line numbers (yep 6000 or so programs in a single system). Luckily I get paid pretty well. For the last couple of years we even had upto 5mb of space for each program (oh yes), and upto line 65000(ish). So much fun I had to write my own renumber routine. In BASIC (because the editor is in BASIC). Don't envy me...

Oh yes and apart from travel systems (is what I do) it's pretty much only used in the UK by those companies that ask you if you have had an accident in the last X years. Apparently it's a fair bit bigger in the US.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Ric
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 00:07 Edited at: 20th Jan 2007 00:13
Nothing like a discussion about forms of BASIC to bring out all the oldies!

Oh, and yes - it was K for keyword!

Next question - who ever managed to get the zx81, the adapter and all the cables, and the manual into the polystyrene box AND still get it into the cardboard sleeve?

Spooky: Amiga? Huh - that didn't even have a built in MIDI port.

CattleRustler
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 00:14
have a good ol' hoot


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_BASIC

Aaron Miller
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 03:26
Nearly 30 messages in 1 day?!?!?! Yay, I feel like I have started something that may turn into a popular thread quickly.

Anyways, I started on DarkBASIC Classic for BASIC. (Jeese! Everyone here has started with things like QBasic, and, some really, really old BASIC...)

I have become inspired to write this quick little snippet:

* Untested

-db


APEXnow
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 04:27
I'm sorry, but you've pushed me to the point of insanity!! I pre-owned an Atari 1040STFM that used GFA Basic 3.0. I do not destroy anything.. to the point where I keep everything, including emails. To follow was my first major attempt at Tetris on the Atari STFM using GFA Basic. The full source is supplied, so if you have GFA Basic and an Atari ST, go right and play the game



Paul.

Venge
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 16:08
yea I remember when they came out with....
well no i dont

I wasnt born yet

But my first coding was on my dad's old Commodore 64 and it looked a lot like that.

If you shoot a mime, should you use a silencer?
Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
x1b
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 17:48 Edited at: 20th Jan 2007 18:04
Quote: "For bonus points, who can tell me why you got a white on black 'k' in the bottom left corner of the screen when you switched on your ZX81? "


Meant system is ready to go after powerup.

http://oldcomputers.net/atari800.html
this was my first PC experience for both Gaming and BASIC programming, and BAISC Game Programming. You used to be able to buy 'game books' at Radioshack,which was the sourcecode to a game you wanted to play.

Aaron Miller
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 20:34
Well... Looks like it's not going as quickly as I thought it was


CattleRustler
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 22:00
Quote: "Nearly 30 messages in 1 day?!?!?! Yay, I feel like I have started something that may turn into a popular thread quickly."


Quote: "Well... Looks like it's not going as quickly as I thought it was "


posts like this slide you back into n00bism

BiggAdd
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 22:04
I Still have a working Acorn computers - BBC Basic. Its probably worth a penny now... but I thought it worthy to keep.

Aaron Miller
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 22:04
What? Why? All I did was say what I thought.

-db


Jeff Miller
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 22:44
By forum standards, you got off light. Always expect a bit of "famous last words" & other good-hearted types of sarcasm.
French gui
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 23:26
My first Basic program was made on an Oric Atmos in 1984. It has wonderful sound commands like PING, ZAP and EXPLODE (loved that one ). Someone heard about this machine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Computer_Systems
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 00:45
Well this was technically my fist exposure to BASIC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_Programming

Later I started going to SEARS all the time to play with the TI-99/4 they had on display and made a couple of simple hello world style programs. Timex-Sinclair 1000 was my first actual computer that I could play with at home, spent many hours trying to make a Tunnels of Doom clone with the 2k memory I had.

CattleRustler
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 00:49
Quote: "What? Why? All I did was say what I thought."

no no, I didnt mean "newb slapped", I meant it sounded n00bish, like "hurray, everyone loves my post!". Sorry if you got freaked out.

Aaron Miller
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 00:59
Alright. Thats much better than being newb slapped.

I never said everyone loved my post, I simply stated it appeared it was growing quickly and might become a popular (As in "hot") thread.

-db


Dazzag
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 09:07
Quote: "I pre-owned an Atari 1040STFM that used GFA Basic 3.0."
Me too! Infact I think I saw the manual around here somewhere for GFA the other day when I was unpacking. Definitely saw the STOS and machine code books. Unfortuantly my parents chucked my old computers to the charity shop (without telling me) when they moved to Cyprus. Although I still have a disk I believe with a Dungeon Master clone I was working on in Uni (instead of going to lectures). I'll have to dig it out...

[/quote]Oric Atmos[quote]I've heard of it. Never used one. Although I have seen an Oric One. Friend of mine got one and used it to make a disco light thingy. So he ran the program and selected a mode and it would pake patterns with these Xmas lights on a couply of boards. He used it to do some kids discos and stuff.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
French gui
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 20:12 Edited at: 21st Jan 2007 20:13
Cool. I was too a GFA Basic fan! I still have my old 520 STE but it has some floppy disc drive issues. I still play dungeon master on an emulator (Steem), it's the greatest game ever made!!!
Antidote
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 21:14
My first program was in PASCAL less than three years ago


Dazzag
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 22:44 Edited at: 21st Jan 2007 22:44
Heh, I looked to my bookcase after reading that and the first programming book I saw was "Hyperprogramming" which is a Hypercard book I used for my Uni final year project. Basically the most amazingly english language I have ever used (makes VB look like machine code; some of the code I guessed at as the correct way of forming an english sentence, even variables could have spaces in them). Anyway that book is 13 years old (scratch that, actually 14 years). Sigh. Time to watch 80's Brat pack movies with some beer...

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing

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