-=>Quoting Donald Blake to Bob Dunnell <=-
BD>As a profession, you'll want to learn a structured language such
BD>as C in addition to BASIC.
DB>In your msg. you referred to "structured language", I was
DB>wondering how it differs from BASIC?
I think Bob is thinking of the old days (60s-70s) when BASIC was not
what you would call a structured, when "C" was designed to be so.
Ritchie and Kernighan (developers of C for Bell labs) developed 'C'
to be structured. Today, some versions of BASIC (QuickBASIC and
PowerBASIC for instance) lend themselves to structured programming
very well and can be rightfully be considered a "structured language."
Now, as for the difference between the two. You should know that
BASIC is what they call a "high-level" language, while 'C' is
regarded a "mid-level" language.
A "level" in this context is a measure of how close you can get to
the heart of the machine. Assembly language, for instance, is a
"low-level" language. It allows you to get right down into the
trenches and you can do just about anything you want. The down side
is, assemble is more difficult to program.
BASIC on the other hand is a lot easier to program, but even with
PowerBASIC it is hard and cumbersome sometimes to get the machine to
do what you want. Critical areas like screen writes, or special
handling of data are restricted.
Enter 'C,' the "mid-level" language. It is easier to program than
assembly, but more flexible than BASIC. And, hence that is why I work
with all three. But, most of the programs I write are in BASIC,
because developing applications in BASIC is quick and easy. And I use
'C' or assembly proceedures where I need to get closer to the heart
of the machine.
DB>I've started to play with the Q-Basic software that came with my
DB>computer...
Junk it. Get PowerBASIC. ....just my opinion.
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