ORIGIN
The original BASIC language was designed on May 1, 1964 by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz and implemented by a team of Dartmouth students under their direction.
The acronym BASIC comes from the name of an unpublished paper by Thomas Kurtz. BASIC was designed to allow students to write mainframe computer programs for the Dartmouth time sharing system.
TYPICAL BASIC KEYWORDS
(1) DATA MANIPULATION
(a) LET: Assign a value (which maybe the result of an expression) to a variable.
(b) DATA: Holds a list of values which are assigned sequentially using READ command.
- PROGRAM FLOW CONTROL
(a) If …. Then… Else: used to perform comparison or make decisions.
(b) Do… Loop {WHILE} or {UNTIL}: repeat a section of code forever or while/until the specified condition is true.
(c) FOR… To… {STEP}… NEXT: repeat on section of code a given number of times.
(d) WHILE … WEND AND REPEAT… UNTIL: repeat a section of code while the specified condition is true.
(e) Do… Loop {WHILE} or {UNTIL}: repeat a section of code forever or while/until the specific condition is time.
(f) Go To: jump to a numbered or labeled line in the program.
(e) Go SUB: jump to a numbered or labeled line, executes the code it funds there until. It reaches a RETURN command, on which it jumps back to the operator following the Go SUB
- INPUT AND OUTPUT
(a) PRINT: displays a message on the screen or other output device.
(b) INPUT: asks the user to enter the value of a variable. The statement may include a prompt message.
(c) TAB or AT: sets the position where the next character will be shown on the screen or printed on paper.
OTHERS
- REM: holds a programmer’s comment or remark; often used to give a little to the program and to help identify the purpose of a given section of code.
- USR: transfer program control to a machine language. Subroutine, usually entered as an alphanumeric string or in a list of data statements.
- TRON: turns on a Visual, screen representation of the flow of BASIC commands by displaying the number of each command line as command lines run after the command TRON has been used.
EVALUATION
- What is the full meaning of BASIC
- List five BASIC keywords