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From: Rich <rich@example.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: What programs do you make sure are installed on a new Linux install?
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2024 16:38:29 -0000 (UTC)
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candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
> rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote at 19:05 this Saturday (GMT):
>> On Sat, 13 Jul 2024 16:00:04 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07 wrote:
>>
>>> rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote at 04:12 this Thursday (GMT):
>>>> On Wed, 10 Jul 2024 21:58:58 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> As I used to say back in the mainframe days:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Everybody uses COBOL because everybody uses COBOL.
>>>>
>>>> FORTRAN.  COBOL was for brain dead business people who loved to type...
>>> 
>>> Then everyone used BASIC for a while.
>>
>> Not really. I used FORTH, C, and assembler. I did do one project involving 
>> BASIC but it was an attempt to speed up the BASIC the application people 
>> used by preparsing it to a sort of IL for a runtime but I was working in 
>> Z-80 assembler. 
>>
>> The only time I did much with BASIC was a follow on to the original 
>> project. An AT used a number of satellite XTs to control the environmental 
>> chambers. My contract was to develop the AT end in C. Someone else did the 
>> XTs in BASIC. I eventually went back for 6 months to clean up and enhance 
>> the XT code.It wasn't bad enough to do a complete rewrite.
>>
>> I did do a patch on a legacy BASIC program about 20 years ago after 
>> swearing everyone to secrecy. That was in the same category as when I 
>> fixed the TV of a woman I was interested in and made her swear I didn't 
>> know anything about TVs other than how to plug them in. She wanted to play 
>> Pong and who was I to say no? 
> 
> Well, from what I've read and stuff, BASIC was on a lot of different
> computers.

In the early days of the home computer (i.e., Apple II, Atari 400/800, 
Comodore 64, TRS-80, etc.) the "home computer" usually included a BASIC 
interpreter as part of the base system ROM (or as an included ROM 
cartridge in the case of the Atari's).  Even the IBM PC (which one 
could argue was aimed at businesses) came with a BASIC built into the 
machine.

If you attached the base system to a TV (or in the case of the PC 
whatever monitor it was compatible with) and powered it up with nothing 
else installed, you got a BASIC "Ready" prompt and /could/ make some 
simple use of the machine.