Re: Why use Basic at all? (was Re: BASIC with built-in matrix functions?)

<news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Judson McClendon" <ju...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> I believe the fundamental BASIC syntax is
>> superior to either of these other languages. For example, VB still has
a
>> complete do/loop structure, where the 'while' or 'until' phrase may be
>> placed after the 'do' or after the 'loop', but none of the other
>> languages provide this full gamut.
>
> But that's *not* a "fundamental BASIC syntax" at all!  Several early
> BASICs had no DO or WHILE loop equivalent - all they had was
> FOR...NEXT.

Technically, you are correct. But I'm not interested in BASIC dialects
that are more than 20 years old, for the same reason I'm not 
interested in boiling my clothes or blacksmithy. They are of historical
interest only. :-)

> Incidentally 'C' also allows you to put the condition at the beginning
> or the end of a WHILE/DO loop, so VB isn't unique in that.

Yes, C sup****ts 'do while' pre and post, but not 'do until'. Some
conditions are more clearly or succinctly expressed as until than 
while. All modern BASICs I know of sup****t both, which was my point.

>  And 'C'
> has both 'break' and 'continue', which no BASIC dialect has as far as
> I know.

PowerBASIC has 'exit' and 'iterate' statements that do the same thing. C's
'for' is more powerful than BASIC's, but I consider it a 
bit more cryptic, as most things in C.
-- 
Judson McClendon      judmc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems     http://sunvaley.com
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