Re: Mac users are feeling our pain :)

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <4471b750$0$31655$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
Peter de Vroomen <peterv[at][spamblock]jaytown[dot]com> wrote:

>>>Yes, for exactly the same reasons I do not do business with Microsoft and
>>>still program in BASIC. Microsoft dumped BASIC in favor of C++,
>>
>> Dunno about that -- after all, Microsoft still sells Visual Basic.  I'm
>> amazed Microsoft hasn't dumped Basic yet ......
> 
> No, it's not BASIC what they sell these days. It's either a crippled mix of
> old-style BASIC and Pascal (VB1-VB6) or C++ with BASIC keywords (VB.NET)! :)

Well, that's just what Basic is: a non-standard syntax which evolves
over time.  The original Dartmouth Basic from 1964 borrowed from
FORTRAN, therefore it didn't even have strings but only numeric
variables.  Like FORTRAN, original Basic also had single-line
functions and DATA statements.  Later, strings were intruduced -
borrowed from Pascal.  Still later, multiline subroutines and
functions were introduced, also borrowed from Pascal.  And now, Basic
borrows from C++ -- or is it Java it borrows from?
 
> Heck, it doesn't even have line numbers! BASIC without line numbers is just
> some other, more serious, programming language in disguise! :)

Are line numbers really illegal in VB.NET ?  If not, why not use them?  :-)

>> otoh Basic was the first language interpreter which Bill Gates wrote -
>> the first version was for the Mits Altair 8080.  Seems like Gates still
>> can't let go of Basic...
> 
> Hmm. Read this: http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html
> 
> Quote: "Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market
> to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC."
> 
> If he wrote the first version of MITS Altair BASIC, then why did he need to
> hire Monte Davidoff? It was either a team effort, or Bill didn't lay a
> finger on BASIC himself. It probably was a team effort, I'll give Bill that.

True, it was a team effort.  Btw, Paul Allen too is among the world's
wealthiest men.

> But I wasn't exactly serious in my post anyway :).

Neither was I....
 
> PeterV

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