The programming language BASIC celebrates its 60th anniversary



BASIC , a programming language that first appeared on May 1, 1964, celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2024.

The BASIC programming language turns 60 | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/the-basic-programming-language-turns-60/



BASIC is a programming language created by Dartmouth College mathematicians John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz.

Programming languages that existed before BASIC, such as

Fortran , ALGOL , and COBOL , were complex and mainly used by computer professionals. Kemeny and Kurtz felt the need to make computers accessible to amateurs, so they began developing a user-friendly language. In 1963, they built the first fully functional general-purpose time-sharing system and applied for a grant from the National Science Foundation. Although there were doubts about Kemeny's plan to conduct research and development with undergraduate students, the grant was awarded.

With the grant, Kemeny and his team opened up their BASIC prototype to everyone at Dartmouth, and it quickly became popular among students and faculty for its simplicity and power.



In 1975, Paul Allen and Bill Gates took notice of BASIC and adopted the language for PCs like the Altair 8800, bringing BASIC to a new demographic of small computer owners and founding Microsoft in the process. In 1976, Steve Wozniak developed a BASIC interpreter from scratch for

the Apple I. A year later, it was also installed on the Apple II , so BASIC is said to have played a key role in the Apple II platform.

'Today, BASIC remains popular among hobbyists in retrocomputing circles, but few use it as a practical language,' said technology expert Benji Edwards. 'But BASIC has not gone out of fashion; rather, it continues to evolve. For example, Microsoft Small Basic, released in 2008, has served as an educational tool to teach programming concepts to beginners. There's no doubt that BASIC's easy-to-understand syntax made it popular and easy to use for beginners.'



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