Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site houxj.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxb!mhuxn!mhuxm!mhuxj!houxm!houxj!wapd From: wapd@houxj.UUCP (Bill Dietrich) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Re: basic for UNIX? Message-ID: <467@houxj.UUCP> Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 11:31:41 EST Article-I.D.: houxj.467 Posted: Wed Feb 13 11:31:41 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 14-Feb-85 02:24:13 EST References: <7873@brl-tgr.ARPA>, <706@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 28 Why are people so intolerant of BASIC ? Every language has some type of usefullness for some community of users. BASIC is useful on Unix in at least two ways that I can think of : it allows one to migrate software from BASIC-only systems to the Unix-based system, and it allows a new Unix user who doesn't know C to use a familiar language while learning Unix. I never use BASIC myself for anything. But arguments that it is worthless, inferior, outdated, etc are incorrect. It may be totally useless to you if you know C and don't have any software written in BASIC that you want to use. But you are only one of the many types of computer user. A version of BASIC that supports matrix operations may be the best possible language in existence for a user who needs to do lots of quick, throwaway programs that do simple matrix operations. The same argument holds for any other language. Lots of people use COBOL (which I can't stand) for good reasons : they can't afford to rewrite all of the COBOL-based software that they depend on, or their managers only understand COBOL, or the government has adopted COBOL as a standard, or some such reason. Bill Dietrich houxj!wapd