[mschaef]

> BASIC is a terrible language... I would assume that something like Forth or Occam would be much better for this, and both are also age-appropriate.

BASIC had a couple huge advantages in that it ran in minimal memory and had a reasonable infix syntax. The infix syntax was a particular advantage in educational scenarios where it matched (roughly) with the way math was taught. (Which was never in pre or postfix notation.)

The cross-platform nature of BASIC was also useful. If you knew one microcomputer, it made it more likely that you could sit down at another and get it to do useful things.

It's easy to second-guess, but even in hindsight I think BASIC was a reasonable choice for the time, goals, and hardware limitations.