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

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 02:57:54 -0700, "news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"
<news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>On Aug 26, 12:35 am, "Tom Lake" <tl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> It's in the de jure (ANSI/ISO) standard for BASIC, not the de facto
>> standard.
>
>I know you would wish it to be otherwise, but the ANSI/ISO BASIC
>standards are as irrelevant to this discussion as they are to any
>other.  In any case I doubt that the 1978 standard, which is the only
>one which might apply to a discussion of BASIC's 'fundamentals',
>included any looping constructs other than FOR...NEXT, did it?
I don't know, lets see:
AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARD X3.113-1987

                 Table 1.  BASIC Keywords
                 ========================
        --------------------------------------------
        c = core                   r = real-time
        f = enhanced files         d = fixed decimal
        g = graphics               e = editing
 ----------------------------------------------------------
<snip>
 DISPLAY     c        DO          c        DRAW         g
<snip>
 FIRST       e        FIXED       d        FOR          c
<snip>
 GO          c        GOSUB       c        GOTO         c
<snip>
 RETRY       c        RETURN      c        REWRITE      f
 SAME        c        SEIZE       r        SELECT       cr
<snip>

Seems to include DO, also.

>The BASIC I am most involved with and know most about was originally
>developed in 1981.  At that time FOR...NEXT was the only looping
>structure in most BASICs; BBC BASIC was one of the first to add
>anything else (REPEAT...UNTIL, and later WHILE...ENDWHILE).
>
>When did any other kind of loop first appear in a Microsoft BASIC?
The earliest MS Basic that I have is GWBasic.  "DO" seems to have
appeared in QuickBasic 3.  "FOR" & "WHILE" appear to exist in all the
MS Basics that I have.
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