is one of the tasks most important and fascinating in the world of computing. Having a mastery in the development of programs is a point in favor that every person who wants to venture into this area should know.
To take the first steps it is necessary to know the most outstanding programming languages that exist. Among them, BASIC stands out, which provides an environment with simple functions and at the same time easy to understand so that any user can master this technique.
In this article we will talk a little about this fabulous language, without leaving aside those elements that characterize it and the most outstanding dialects that exist. Do not miss our analysis, since it will help you easily understand what is BASIC.
What is the BASIC programming language and what is its history in computer programming?
BASIC is an acronym that corresponds to its initials in English “Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code”. Which refers to a programming language that is aimed, especially, at beginners. It was developed in 1964 under the original Dartmouth BASIC version. (after the name of the college that gave rise to the development of the Hungarian professor John George Kemeny).
This programming environment brought a solution for that time, since in order to be able to program at that time, expert users in custom-made software codes were needed. In this way BASIC could be used as a tool to program and at the same time to teach programming to students. At present there are dialects that use this language to carry out their developments. Such is the case of the operating system “prawns” either “FriendSO”.
With these instruction codes it was possible to achieve that students or initial level users can use them in a simple way. In addition, language did not have a specific purpose, that is, could be used in any project since it allowed to have advanced features and be interactive at the same time.
The acceptance of this language was always good, but had an important growth in the year 1975. This was because it was introduced into the Altair 8800 microcomputer which could hold the entire BASIC program in its small memory. This generated an important advance because until now all other languages were very large in size and they could not be saved on any storage device.
In the late 1970s, and after Microsoft and Apple dropped their respective computers, DOS versions of BASIC began to be sold. This caused Microsoft to establish the leadership of this language throughout the computing world. In addition, he had a definitive support with creating visual basic from the company of Bill Gates.
What are the elements of BASIC programming languages?
The most prominent elements in the BASIC language are:
Syntax
Being a programming language that is easy to interpret by novice users and that is interactive, BASIC only needs to use the LET, IF, PRINT, INPUT commands Y GOTO. In this way, it will be possible to make graphics, write texts, read data (both numerical and textual) and make decisions according to a specific script.
In case of adding a memory data structure, other basic commands such as FOR Y GOSUB. Also, to avoid having a mandatory line numbering, use RENUMBERwhich is no longer widely used in modern BASIC dialects such as XBASIC Y BCX.
procedures
Programmers have a library that is incorporated into the procedures of this language. This generated, at the beginning of the implementation of this language, that users could not write their own processes, since they had to do it through the GOTO command.
This resulted in a complication in the flow of procedures. Very confusing diagrams were generated, which was difficult to sustain over time and many times they could only be read by their own programmers.
Flow control
To solve the problem of the procedures, statements were created that would work as subroutines.. This allowed BASIC to branch without having to access certain parameters or specific variables. Therefore, it was achieved that, within the flow of procedures, returns can be made at the beginning or start from another place.
These novelties were incorporated into QuickBASIC and BASICPDS in the mid-1980s by setting subroutines to procedures that don’t return a value and functions to those that do (but we’ll get to that later when we discuss the major BASIC dialects).
Type of data
Each derivation of language that we analyze has functions to work with strings and substrings of characters. The data types that were recognized, such as in the early Dartmouth BASIC dialect, were numeric and character strings. This means that there was no whole guywith strings being a variable size and numeric data being a floating point.
Something similar happens today where numeric data and strings are of variable types. A suffix is used to distinguish them.being the chains the ones that use the “$ sign” (for instance, ADDRESS$), while numeric data does not. Except when you want to specify some important characteristic.
When there are arrays that have a number greater than 10 elements, Variables must only be declared before they are used. While this currently works, there is also the possibility to choose if you want to declare the variables before using them. This is because working in this way is considered good practice development in programming functions. If you want to declare these variables you must use the word DIM.
What kind of programs can be developed using BASIC programming languages?
The BASIC programming language is characterized by its versatility since you can create games, mobile or web applications that have protocols , , or . In addition, you can also work in such as mysql or SQLite.
In this way we can say that the environment provided by BASIC is suitable for any enterprise and useful for any level of user.
List of the best known variables of the BASIC programming language
BASIC is a language that allows you to have different programming variables. We will show you below the best known, most useful and preferred compilers by users:
Quick BASIC and QBASIC
Quick BASIC is a compiler developed by Microsoft in 1985. which is based on BASIC and was used to work with DOS. It had the particularity of fitting on a single diskette and was distinguished because it offered the possibility of adding or removing lines directly from a text editor.
In this way it was possible to compile the software that was executable in DOS and execute the program without having to close the text editor, being able to delete a program before a file is created. Version 7.1 was the last to be released to the market in 1990.. Many people when talking about this program get confused with QBASIC, which is also open source, which was born a year later and was inspired by Quick BASIC.
QBASIC is compatible with DOS, Windows, Linux and FreeBDS operating systems.. It has a structured language that allows the creation of subroutines and while loops, with which compatibility is achieved. The created constructs can be replaced by descriptive tags. with this language the user has limitations regarding the types of data that are generated by structures and others that are used for numeric data or text strings.
Bywater BASIC
It is currently used as a BASIC interpreter. Any operating system that has a compiler of C language can run Bywater BASIC, since it supports ANSI Minimal BASIC X3.60. This dialect is compatible with systems DOS, Linux, UNIX and BDS.
Visual BASIC
It is a programming language developed by Microsoft. It has in its latest stable version (number 6) an integrated development environment that allows working with a text editora structure to test and eliminate the errors that are made in the creation of the program. It also has a compiler to transform the program into the Visual BASIC language.with a tool to remove unneeded resources from the library, and with a graphical user interface.
It is ideal for working in the Data Access Objects interface and ActiveX Data Objects to give and receive information from the databases. In 2001, the Win32 programming interface was put aside and the use of .NET Framework until Microsoft stopped updating the system in March 2018.
It is characterized by providing very fast learning to the user, working easily in the Windows operating system and being able to quickly carry out small prototypes.
FreeBASIC
It is based on BASIC and is an enhancement of QuickBASIC, as it provides features such as graphical user interface (GUI) executable programs and consoles. In addition, it provides an online assembler and pointers. Its structure has a set of functions that are implemented dynamically and statically.
It has been in force since 2004. and its updates can be downloaded from the following link:
Power BASIC (paid)
It was released under the name Turbo BASIC and was developed by PowerBASIC Inc. in 1989. It is a set of programs that translate what has been developed by users into a superior programming language. It has two versions, one is for MS-DOS and the other for Windows.
For the first, the language is very similar to QBASIC and its predecessor QuickBASIC. While for the second version it is divided into 2 subtypes: Console and Windows. This has a syntax that includes a good number of Windows functions, called Windows APIs.
It is characterized by its simplicity in its use and the speed with which it compares to other programming languages. Also, has an online assembler that allows to optimize the codes.
Its latest stable version was released in May 2011 and you can find compilers for Windows and other additional tools on its official website. for which you will have to pay to download their products.
Pure BASIC
With this compiler you can make executable programs that are small in size and amazingly fast. It allows to work with Windows (32 and 64 bits), MacOS (x86 and x64), Linux (32 and 64 bits) and AmigaOSthanks to the same source code, so it uses API functions from each of these OS.
An important new feature of PureBASIC is that instructions can be added to the assembler so that they can work through BASIC. In this way, a more efficient and faster process is achieved.
BCX
Thanks to this free software, both for personal and professional use (in some tools), You can translate a BASIC-based programming language into a…
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