The BASIC Programming Language Turns 60
Freeman writes:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/the-basic-programming-language-turns-60/
Sixty years ago, on May 1, 1964, at 4 am in the morning, a quiet revolution in computing began at Dartmouth College. That's when mathematicians John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz successfully ran the first program written in their newly developed BASIC (Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language on the college's General Electric GE-225 mainframe.
Little did they know that their creation would go on to democratize computing and inspire generations of programmers over the next six decades.
[...] Prior to BASIC, programming languages like Fortran, Algol, and COBOL proved complex and were primarily used by professionals. Kemeny and Kurtz saw a need for amateurs who were not dedicated computer engineers to be able to use computers as well. Their journey to create a more user-friendly language began in 1956 with Dartmouth Simplified Code (DARIMSCO), followed by the Dartmouth Oversimplified Programming Experiment (DOPE). While DOPE proved too simple to be of much use, the lessons learned from these projects informed the development of BASIC, which started in 1963.
[...] The impact of BASIC extended far beyond Dartmouth's campus. As part of the deal to buy the GE computer, the undergraduates built the operating system in BASIC for General Electric's version of time-sharing. This allowed colleges, high schools, and individuals across the country to dial into mainframe computers and write programs using BASIC.
In 1975, Paul Allen and Bill Gates adapted the language for personal computers like the Altair 8800, expanding its reach to a new audience of small computer owners and founding Microsoft in the process. In 1976, Steve Wozniak developed a BASIC interpreter from scratch for the Apple I using self-taught methods and minimal resources. This became Integer BASIC for the Apple II a year later, and BASIC (as Applesoft BASIC) remained a key part of the Apple II throughout the platform's lifespan.
[...] Today, BASIC remains popular in hobbyist retrocomputing circles, but few use it as a practical language. And yet it never truly died out-instead, it continued to evolve.
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