In defence of C (was:Re:Anybody else tried FreeBasic (aka fbc)?)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Oct 11, 2005 at 04:36:15PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> Amazingly enough, the original BASIC (at Dartmouth College) was an
> incremental compiler.  Each line was separately compiled, as it was
> entered, to machine code!  I think that that is the reason for the odd
> (crude) variable naming rules -- all variables existed (26 x 11
> numeric variables were possible).
> 
> PS: I played with a later version of that BASIC implementation in
> 1967.  Mind you, I had no idea about compilers until perhaps year
> later.  What I was impressed with was time sharing (using a Teletype
> terminal).  Previously, I had mostly done batch computing with
> turn-around measured in months.

Hmm, I underestimated the age of basic it would seem.  I thought it was
from the 70s some time.

Lennart Sorensen
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