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Imagine a world in which a programming language was so popular that it was used every day on home computers, taught to children in school, and used by people without scientific or technical education. Although the idea of a single universal language is rather utopian, there has been a language in history that came closest to this dream. It was created specifically for ordinary people. Its name is BASIC. We will tell you about its history in this BizUPLab article.
A language for everyone: the history of BASIC
What came before BASIC?
To truly appreciate the impact of BASIC, you need to think back to the distant 1960s, an era when computers took up entire rooms and were used for military, research and scientific purposes. Programming such machines required a deep knowledge of mathematics and logic, which significantly limited access to the world of computing. Programming at that time was something of a closed club for scientists and engineers. And it was in this world of high computing and low accessibility that John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz, professors at Dartmouth College, decided that programming should be as common a skill as writing or arithmetic. The idea of making programming accessible to everyone seemed radical and almost impossible at the time, but it was the starting point for the creation of BASIC.
How did the BASIC language come about?
In 1964, after months of painstaking work, Kemeny and Kurtz presented a language called BASIC (an abbreviation of Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, which can be translated as a universal symbolic programming language for beginners). The name reflected the philosophy behind the project: to make programming accessible and understandable to everyone.
BASIC was conceived as an alternative to the complex languages of the time, according to experts at BizUPLab Budapest. It had an intuitive syntax that could be read and understood without a voluminous textbook. Its commands resembled ordinary English, which made the entry threshold minimal. But the real breakthrough was not only the simplicity of the language, but its architecture, which was oriented towards multi-user work. BASIC was one of the first languages that allowed several students to simultaneously write and run their programs on one computer, each through a separate terminal. At a time when most systems operated in a strictly sequential mode, this possibility seemed almost like science fiction. It not only accelerated learning, but also changed the very model of interaction with the machine.
By creating a language that was understandable and accessible to everyone, Kemeny and Kurtz opened the door to a new era of computer science. BASIC became a turning point in the history of personal computers. It was no longer necessary to be a professor of mathematics to write a simple program. All you needed was a normal interest and a computer.
BASIC was conceived as an alternative to the complex languages of the time, according to experts at BizUPLab Budapest. It had an intuitive syntax that could be read and understood without a voluminous textbook. Its commands resembled ordinary English, which made the entry threshold minimal. But the real breakthrough was not only the simplicity of the language, but its architecture, which was oriented towards multi-user work. BASIC was one of the first languages that allowed several students to simultaneously write and run their programs on one computer, each through a separate terminal. At a time when most systems operated in a strictly sequential mode, this possibility seemed almost like science fiction. It not only accelerated learning, but also changed the very model of interaction with the machine.
By creating a language that was understandable and accessible to everyone, Kemeny and Kurtz opened the door to a new era of computer science. BASIC became a turning point in the history of personal computers. It was no longer necessary to be a professor of mathematics to write a simple program. All you needed was a normal interest and a computer.
BASIC gradually began to win over audiences in American schools and universities, but the real explosion in popularity occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, when the first affordable microcomputers, such as the Altair 8800, Apple 2 and, a little later, Commodore, entered the market. BASIC became essentially the first programming language for millions of users around the world. It was often pre-installed on new computers. When turned on, the user was immediately taken to the BASIC command line. For the first time, people could interact directly with a computer at home, write code and see the results immediately. Dozens of leading programmers of our time took their first steps in programming with BASIC. BASIC was not just a teaching language; it aroused curiosity, encouraged experimentation, and shaped a culture of independent approach to programming. It was the language that started a whole generation's immersion in programming.
It is impossible to talk about BASIC without mentioning one of the giants of the modern IT industry – Microsoft. The success of this company is directly linked to the history of BASIC. In 1975, young Paul Gates and Paul Allen, whose names are now known to everyone, wrote their own version of Basic for the Altair 8800. This version, called Altair Basic, was a resounding success and became the starting point in the history of Microsoft.
It is impossible to talk about BASIC without mentioning one of the giants of the modern IT industry – Microsoft. The success of this company is directly linked to the history of BASIC. In 1975, young Paul Gates and Paul Allen, whose names are now known to everyone, wrote their own version of Basic for the Altair 8800. This version, called Altair Basic, was a resounding success and became the starting point in the history of Microsoft.
Explosion in popularity
BASIC was replaced by more flexible and functional tools, according to experts at BizUPLab company. First came C and Pascal, then Python and Java. Their wide range of capabilities, support for structures and objects, and professional development environments gradually pushed BASIC off its pedestal. Nevertheless, the ideas behind BASIC live on in its successors. One of the most famous is Visual Basic, which is still actively used in a wide variety of areas, from corporate systems to internal business applications.
The legacy of BASIC
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