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GWBasic was good resource to get into programming world during my teenage. Now I want to teach coding to my 10 years old son. Will you still recommend GWBASIC/Quick basic or Python or other languages for kids?
That's awesome. I actually have GW Basic from my first computer available. Copied from the old 5.25 inch floppy to a 3.5 inch floppy via a 486 and then to a USB hard drive about 20 years ago into a folder i called "Diskette Collection".
From a comment in the source > ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ON THE PDP-10 FROM FEBRUARY 9 TO APRIL 9 1975 Wow! I did not realize that it was written so quickly. Two months that literally changed the PC landscape forever.
Well...remember it is 'just' a BASIC interpreter. Woz wrote Apple integer BASIC in the evenings while working at HP in just a few months. Guys were writing crazy stuff at the time. The original version of DOS that Microsoft bought to license to IBM for the PC was written in 6 weeks.
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You and I both - first time I ever touched an IBM PC XT (in my Dad's office), I immediately fired up BASIC and went to town (had already been programming BASIC for 18 months by that time). It was the first time I ever saw him just stare in awe at me like I was an alien's child! :)
And me! (and a few hundred/thousand people in this great forum)!! Oh I still remember that Amstrad PC1512!!! What a carefree age that was...
It's really enjoyable to look at the source. These days one I feel it's quite rare to see assembly code not as an output from a tool like IDA Pro. If I remember correctly, the size of a compiled GWBASIC.EXE file was about 80 kB. What feels weird though is seeing all the files on GitHub last modified "38 years ago," which by the way, also includes the file CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
I'm not familiar with modula but this doesn't appear to be a valid program ;) I think it wasn't until Vim 8 that the default for .md files became markdown.
(Vim 8 was released in September of the same year.)
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It's too bad Microsoft QuickBASIC isn't a thing anymore. Who didn't love GORILLAS.BAS?
Yes! QuickBasic 4.5 was my jam! I used to churn out apps with that left and right.
And from there, once you hit QuickBasic's limitations, it was a small step to Turbo Pascal or Borland C!
Visual Basic 6 next please! :)
This is great! But it makes me think that Microsoft need to add a BASIC compiler as standard in all Windows distributions. They did that Small Basic thing a while back, but it was too encumbered in .NET-isms, a kind of Visual Basic .NET lite. It would be great if there was just a easy to understand BASIC that you could hack away with that could produce interesting programs without the .NET cruft or the barrier that i…
It's too bad Microsoft QuickBASIC isn't a thing anymore. Who didn't love GORILLAS.BAS?
From a comment in the source > ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ON THE PDP-10 FROM FEBRUARY 9 TO APRIL 9 1975 Wow! I did not realize that it was written so quickly. Two months that literally changed the PC landscape forever.
It's funny how stuff that got put together quickly like GW-BASIC and JavaScript got so much success because of luck and popular appeal. It's like music. The best music has never been in the top of the charts. The best movies have never won Oscars. This is pop computing.