Background of BASIC

One of the earliest and most popular programming languages, still used today, is Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, or BASIC. Originally developed at Dartmouth College by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz in 1963, it became widely used on personal computers everywhere, especially some of the first programs for the IBM PC. Because of its simplicity, BASIC has frequently been used in teaching the introductory concepts of programming. An impetus for its development was the need for an alternative to the more difficult language FORTRAN (Formula Translation) in teaching beginning programming.

BASIC continues to enjoy widespread popularity because it is easy to learn, BASIC programs are easily understood by other programmers, and BASIC support is available on most operating systems. BASIC often comes with sound and graphics support. Over the years, BASIC has evolved through many popular versions, such as QBASIC, QuickBASIC, Turbo BASIC, BASICA (BASIC Advanced...