HP was one of the key minicomputer manufacturers of the ’70s to offer Basic, specifically on its 2100 Series machines.
H ere at Linux Format Towers, we’re always exploring programming languages, some of which date back to the late ’50s but still play important roles today. Those venerable languages are Fortran and COBOL. Here we’re engaging on a similar exercise, as we turn our attention to Basic, but the story is different. The timeline of Fortran and COBOL can be summarised as: developed back in the mists of time; enjoyed almost immediate success; accepted as a standard; several new standardised versions are introduced over the decades; currently within the top 25 spots in the TIOBE index; widely used in research and/or business today. In the case of Basic, while the first three and last two of those statements remain true, the journey is substantially different, as we’re about to see.
Although this article can be considered a history lesson – albeit hopefully more enthralling than learning the dates on which British monarchs ascended to the throne – there’s a hands-on element, too. Of course, it’s quite likely that you’ve already tried your hand at Basic programming, but there are loads of variants, so hopefully we’ll introduce you to something new and unexpected. And in one of its newer guises, you might even decide to use it for coding a real-world app.