Why Basic?
by Joe Hochstuhl


     Basic has always been the target of ridicule from other programmers
who use C, Pascal, Cobol, and Assemblier. And with the introductions of
Virtual Basic, and C for windows, Basic has fallen even lower in the
ratings.

     I have programed for years in several different languages. I started
out in Basic, learned Pascal in college, and then onto C++.  Assemblier
was a required language in computer engineering classes, so this is one
language I became well acquainted with. And thru all of this I had a hard
time deciding what was the one language I wanted to stick with.

     From the given choices, I immediately tossed Pascal. Never really
liked the language as it seemed to be nothing more than a short form of C
with limitations. C++ was a language that I seriously considered sticking
with, but it is a hard language to master, and even with it's built-in
flexibility, it had limitations as well. Assemblier will allow you to do
anything that you wish to do to a computer, but the language itself is
long winded and complicated. I never learned Cobol well enough to
evaluate it fairly.

     It became apparent that all the languages would require the use of
another language if one is to be able to do essentially anything they
wish to a computer, This is especially true of the higher level
languages.

     My favorite began emerging as Basic. Despite all it's limitations,
Basic is a very forgiving language. It's loose structure and ease of
debugging made it very appealing to beginners. The biggest frustrations
with Basic are it limitations in capabilities. However, there are some
saving graces. Basic loans itself to easily calling up subroutines, and
shell outs to other programs.

     I found by using Basic for the bulk of my programming, I could
easily incorporate Assemblier to do some of the tasks that basic is
incapable of. And once one learns basic thoroughly, programming becomes
as simple as speaking.

     By using Basic as a main language and assemblier as a "workhorse",
if you will, the combination becomes unbeatable. In no other single
language can one have any better control of a computer and it's workings.

     Now to be fair to the other programmers and authors who have stuck
to their guns and sweated out the details of the more advanced high level
and intermediate level languages. I say congratulations. But for those
who wish to begin in programming without the intention of become an
expert in the field. I say, learn Basic, and learn it well. And while on
the way, get yourself a working knowledge of Assemblier. Between the two,
you'll find yourself capable of the same control the expert programmers
have. And get there in a shorter period of time.
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