[crazygringo]

Wow this takes me back.

BASIC was how I started programming, 30 years ago.

Is this the first time someone's implemented BASIC in JavaScript? It seems so... obvious in hindsight.

I wonder if this has any potential for kids who want to start to learn programming? Or if there are other better, more modern, places to start these days?

Also... why is this from Google of all places? Seems like more of a personal hobby project.

[themodelplumber]

I had some similar nostalgia and tried out FreeBASIC the other day. It was dead easy to get started. I couldn't believe how simple it was to get up and running, and while I mostly worked on some command line programs, it was really cool to see how GTK and Qt and other GUI tools were made usable as well.

After this experience I can easily see how someone could still be writing BASIC for a living in 2018, whether for standalone desktop apps or for web CGI, etc.

[bitwize]

There was a dialect called Business BASIC that was popular for business apps in the 1970s. It supported things like record-based file I/O (creating a navigational database), the creation of multiple concurrent tasks (on a 64k machine!), as well as exception handling in the form of additional params that specified which line numbers to branch to on error for all I/O operations.

Business BASIC was ported to mainstream PCs and other micros as the market for dedicated Business BASIC minicomputer systems waned. It still lives on today in the form of two dialects: ProvideX and BBj. And people are still writing/maintaining applications in it.

[exikyut]

oooh.

> In the 1980s, Business Basics were ported from their original proprietary environments to many Unix platforms, CP/M, and to DOS. In the 1990s, some Business Basics were ported to Linux and Windows, ... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Basic]

Know where I might be able to find some of the earlier versions? The DOS and CP/M versions simply for the archival/historic value, but I'd love to play with the Linux version in particular, early Linux software is virtually impossible to find. Early Windows versions would certainly be fascinating as well.

[cm2187]

Well, with .net being ported to wasm, you should soon be able to use vb.net in the browser too.

[gary__]

Interesting, found these links for a bit more (incase anyone else is interested)

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/NETAndWebAssemblyIsThisTheFut...

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/webdev/2018/02/06/blazor-ex...

[vertex-four]

VB.Net has little to do with Basic or Visual Basic - it’s really just an alternative syntax for C#.

[cm2187]

But it has preserved a lot of the simplicity of the basic language.

I think it’s biggest value is that it offers a bridge for business users who’s only programming experience is some VBA to a more sane and modern language.

[lucio]

>it’s really just an alternative syntax for C#

That's very true. Either C# or VB.NET, you're programming the NET Framework. All you can do in C# you can do in VB.NET, and even there's some features that are better implemented in VB.NET, like Type.Missing https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/eric_carter/2004/04/15/type...

Of course any language with "Basic" in its name will be look down, but in today's NET there's no objective reasons to do so. Nowadays, VB is a better choice than C# to develop in-house business management software.

[cm2187]

That is a bit dated, C# fixed that problem many years ago [1]

But there are still instances where the VB.net syntax is nicer than c#, for instance date litterals, or array litterals:

C# foreach(var x in new string[] {"A", "B", "C"})

VB For Each x in {"A", "B", "C"}

Also switch statements in C# are horrendous. But there are also instances where C# has a better syntax, like "x=>x+1" is way more elegant and practical than "Function(x) x+1".

But I think the writing is on the wall. VB will go the way of Winforms, i.e. sort of supported but nothing more.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_4.0#Optional_parameter...

[gary__]

Switch statements got an upgrade in v7 which makes things better

https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2017/02/01/pattern...