Steve Holden wrote:
Adam DePrince wrote:
On Thu, 2004-12-16 at 13:36, abisofile wrote:
hi
I'm new to programming.I've try a little BASIC so I want ask since
Python is also interpreted lang if it's similar to BASIC.
Nobody is answering this question because they are shuddering in fear
and revulsion.
During the 1980's BASIC was the language to embedd into the ROM's of the
computers of the day. This was in a misguided effort to make computers
understandable to their target audience. The goal of the day was to
build a system that a manager would want to buy; it was believed that
the only way for a manager to see the value of a system was to make the
language understandable to said manager. The expectation, of course,
that the manager would sit down and play with the computer instead of
delegating the tasks to somebody more qualified is somewhat misguided in
hindsight. To do that, a language that closely resembled the process of
micromanaging an untrained worker was employed.
But that language was COBOL, not BASIC. BASIC is actually an acronym for
"Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code", which the initial
implementations at Dartmouth weren't, really. The big innovation was the
use of line-numbering to allow interactive editing and testing of a
program.
Which, now I remember, Digital Equipment extended to floating-point in
their FOCAL language. I never did discover whether the number of
insertions required was limited by the floating-point precision, but
Focal was unique in my experience in allowing insertion of statement 1.5
between statements 1 and 2.
(mumbles into beard and drools quietly in the corner).
talking-to-myself-again-ly y'rs - steve
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Python Web Programming http://pydish.holdenweb.com/
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