BASIC or Basic Definition/Meaning:
Acronym far beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code. A
simple programming language, developed in the mid-1960s to exploit the then
novel capability of interactive use of a computer from a remote terminal. BASIC
as originally conceived was a very simple language that could be learned very
quickly. The BASIC system included crude editing facilities as part of the
language so that the user was insulated from the complexities of any underlying
operating system. At first BASIC only handled numeric values, but it was later
extended to allow string variables and was provided with a set of procedures for
simple string manipulation that have become a de facto standard.
The simplicity of BASIC made it a natural choice as a programming language for
the early microcomputers, and it became established as a common language for
programming personal computers. Unfortunately, almost every machine has its own
dialect of BASIC so that programs are not readily portable. The establishment of
an ANSI Standard for BASIC has not made any appreciable improvements in this
situation.
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