Skip to main content


59 years ago today, the first computer program written in #BASIC was run.

The easy-to-learn and -use #programming language revolutionized #computing. A decade later, #BillGates would co-found #Microsoft to develop and sell the BASIC interpreter for the #Altair 8800, the first commercially successful desktop microcomputer.

More from when #Dartmouth celebrated BASIC’s fiftieth anniversary: dartmouth.edu/basicfifty

#ProgrammingLanguages #ComputingHistory #retrocomputing #coding

in reply to Mark Gardner

@Cloudguy I learnt to program in #BASIC. I have recently returned to programming or is it coding nowadays, with Python. All the things I learnt with BASIC have been very helpful.
in reply to bazcurtis

@bazcurtis @Cloudguy Classic #BASIC from the #1980s and before was thought to nearly ruin first-time programmers, robbing them of the ability to write well in other #ProgrammingLanguages. catb.org/jargon/html/B/BASIC.h…

I first learned it as a child on the #Commodore PET and #C64. Does that say anything about the current quality of my #SoftwareDevelopment? At least I don’t pine for line numbers, GOTO and GOSUB.

#programming #coding #retrocomputing

in reply to Mark Gardner

@bazcurtis @Cloudguy
BASIC progwamming is like a super-duper magic wand for compootah stuffs! 💫✨ Even tho it's oldie, it still can make cool things happen! 🖥️🌟 #KidCodes #BASICPowerful #CompootahMagicWand
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source
Mark Gardner

@Cloudguy I can’t help the side of the pond I was born on.

I know what I like but I also know it’s hopelessly tangled in subjective nostalgia.

This entry was edited (2 years ago)
Unknown parent

@Cloudguy My maths teacher had a ZX80 and started the school computer club. The school got a Research Machine 380Z. I wish I could tell him he started my career. Good teachers can do that.

My machines were ZX Spectrum, BBC Master, Amiga, Apple LCIII, various iMacs from then on.

in reply to bazcurtis

@bazcurtis @Cloudguy I’m still in touch with my elementary school math teacher that introduced me to the #Commodore64. I slightly repaid the favor thirty years later by rehabilitating a collection of #OLPC XO laptops for her to bring to kids in Africa
in reply to Mark Gardner

@Cloudguy That is fantastic. I think a lot of teachers set children on their career path and never know. That computer club changed my life.