BASIC vs Python

Gregor Horvath g.horvath at gmx.at
Fri Dec 17 02:09:10 EST 2004


Hi,

Adam DePrince wrote:

> computers of the day.   This was in a misguided effort to make computers
> understandable to their target audience.  The goal of the day was to
> build a system that a manager would want to buy; it was believed that

[..]

BASIC = Beginners all purpose symbolic instruction code

ABC = laerning language

Python = Follows IMHO the same goals as BASIC did,
make programming as simple as possible, they are related

Sure for people loving technology and complexity this goals (simplicity, 
easy to understand) are the opposite of their interests. Therefore both 
BASIC and Python do have the same opposition with very similar arguments.

Complexity is the evil of all programming. Reducing it is a win. 
Therefore BASIC was right and python is also because they follow the 
same philosophy.

For example: I even think that the meaningful identation in python is 
the continuation of the absence of a line delimiter in BASIC. Braces and 
semicolons are essentially useless and redundant because indentation and 
LF are already there, therefore leave it out; well this is indeed the 
meaning of the word basic.

--
Greg



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