Just as serious. Programming does not always require a solid reason before you can engage in it, quite a bit of it is like playing. If you actually enjoy programming then it is much nicer to do than if everything needs a financial justification.
There is a similar analogy with music, you could make money with it, but you can also simply enjoy it.
Because with this javascript library, you can run BASIC programs on the web.
BASIC was for many people their introduction to programming, and it has a simplicity which is nearly unmatched today.
By providing a way to run the language inside the ubiquitous web browse, one may hope to spread the usage of BASIC as a learning tool, especially for youngsters.
Why would Google want to spread the usage of BASIC? From an engineering perspective, this is an interesting project to work on, but I can't find a reason for Google to publish it. I also don't think that BASIC is a good learning tool nowadays. I'm not the only one who thinks so. A quote by Edsger W. Dijkstra:
> It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
Just as serious. Programming does not always require a solid reason before you can engage in it, quite a bit of it is like playing. If you actually enjoy programming then it is much nicer to do than if everything needs a financial justification.
There is a similar analogy with music, you could make money with it, but you can also simply enjoy it.