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A Post BASIC World?

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What does is mean to be in a post BASIC world? This is the question that comes to mine when I read about an article titled How are students learning programming in a post-Basic world? I think that for most of the people in the discussion it means that we are no longer in an era where all computers come with a programming language such as they all used to come with BASIC. It’s not so much about BASIC having gone by the wayside, although some would like to see that happen, as it is not having that excitement , that thrill, that joy of learning enough programming to create that first program to solve a real problem. (A good insight into that is a related article Midnight programming, 1979 vs. 2011)  In the early days when computers came with BASIC (most often written by some guy named Gates who had a little software company selling BASIC interpreters to lots of computer companies like one in California called Apple) lots of people were teaching themselves programming.

In some sense one had to teach oneself. Oh there were books to help but computer science programs in universities were rare, in high schools rarer still and before high school pretty much nonexistent. But while the BASIC language was simple so were our aspirations of what we could accomplish with computers. I still remember learning about loops by creating a program that printed out the times tables from 1 to 12. I could impress people with the result believe it or not. Oh how times have changed! But does this really mean we are in a post BASIC world? I’m not so sure.

First off while few systems come with a good BASIC (or similar tool) installed there are plenty of good free tools that are available as a download. Event the article that kicked this off lists several of  them such as Small Basic , Visual Basic 2010 Express , Scratch and Alice and more. There are command line compilers included with some open source OS distributions as well though in all honestly I don’t think a command line compiler is the best thing for an absolute beginner. That is another way things have changed – people expect GUI development tools that create GUI applications. This is one reason why Python, as great as it is for many things, is not my first choice. It’s easy enough to get all these tools but I do wish that they came standard with every operating system. That simple act of discovery or rather of not stumbling on it when playing with the OS is a stumbling block.

I also don’t think that BASIC is dead by any means. I love BASIC. Visual Basic is my personal favorite but I think for total beginners Small basic is a great way to start. It is simple and easy to use – like the BASIC interpreters so many of us stumbled upon. It is friendly, there are turtle graphics, it is easy to start with, there are samples and documentation. It is very accessible. Yet it is powerful enough to do real applications. Possibly best of all there is that “Graduate” button that creates a Visual Basic project so you can move to the next level.

I never bought the line that BASIC was somehow bad for you. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Visual Basic is as good an OOP language as any other. Small Basic is a nice step in that direction without the professional tool complexity that stifles some beginners. Get a tool, explore programming, have fun with it. You can learn to do powerful things with BASIC without weird looking semi colons, curly braces or having to be rigid about white space. Get hooked on programming like I am so many others have. Yes, this is not your father’s BASIC and not it did not come pre-installed on your computer. But stretch a little. It may change your life.

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2011
    Lua! It's a very lightweight language and simply to understand. It's part functional, part OOP-emulation language. And it's highly probable the kids might find a game that has a Lua scripting language for them to extend.

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2011
    Before BASIC, many schools taught Logo, remember that one?   Go turtle go!!!

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2011
    What about PureBasic. www.PureBasic.com Runs on Windows, Linux, Apple. Check it out.

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 07, 2011
    When I speak of Visual Basic I mean VB .NET. VB 6.0 and older are no longer available.

  • Anonymous
    July 07, 2011
    I stopped reading after the 3 or 4th sentence because your spelling and grammar are atrocious. If you are going to post articles on a public forum, the least you could do is proofread your work.

  • Anonymous
    July 08, 2011
    To compare Basic and Alice or Scratch is absolutely ridiculous. To say that Alice or Scratch will take over is absolutely ridiculous. In 1982, I taught APL to a group of kids aged 9-12 and they are ALL into programming in a big way and earning a lot of money doing that.  Today's Basic has all of the array features which APL was proud of, so I can safely say that BASIC with array features and audio video,  and less of the formalities is still the ideal tool to teach, to program in and to do business programming in.  Add Database languages into that a bit later.

  • Anonymous
    July 08, 2011
    Thanks for the feedback David. I especially appreciate that you posted it publically rather than sending it privately.

  • Anonymous
    July 10, 2011
    A post-BASIC world is a post-basic world; meaning that programming languages are becoming complex; software developed with them even more complex. Human loves complexity. (Simple test: Imagine a room in the house of your dreams! What kind of place would it be? Probably a room with a lot of decorations and luxurious living house applications we are all granted for! Now imagine a simple room with nothing but white walls and a plain bed. Where would you find such a place? In a prison cell! Now tell me: Which one do you love most?) What he hates is overwhelming complexity and unnecessary complexity; that's not because of complexity but because of overwhelming and unnecessary.