Basics of BASIC
Virtually all home computers provide a language known as BASIC, which allows programs to be
written in the nearest thing to plain language presently available.
BASIC is an acronym of ‘Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code - it no longer has any
particular significance as to the degree of the sophistication of the languages, and many extremely
complex and powerful programs are written using BASIC.
However, there’s no doubt that the name has attracted many newcomers for its promise of providing
a starting place in the maze of computer program languages, and this has contributed significantly
to its universality.
From here onwards, the commonly used words that form the glossary of terms of computing will be
introduced by first printing them in italics. Don’t worry about trying to learn them from the
following sections - there’s an index to them in the glossary.
Basics
BASIC is a computer language that interprets a range of permitted commands, and then performs
operations on data while the program runs. Unlike the average human vocabulary of 5-8 thousand
words (plus all the different ways verbs can be used etc.), BASIC has to get by with about two
hundred. Computer programs written using BASIC have to follow rigid rules concerning the use of
these words. The syntax is precise, and any attempt to communicate with the computer using literal
or colloquial expressions (plain language) will result in the cold and clinical message:
Syntax error
This is not as restrictive as it first appears, since the language of BASIC (the Syntax) is primarily
designed to manipulate numbers - the, numeric data. The words are essentially an extension of the
familiar mathematical operators + / -etc. - and the most import concept for newcomers to grasp is the
fact that a computer can only work with numeric data - information that is supplied to the Central
Processor integrated circuit is only supplied in the form of numerical data.
NUMBER PLEASE!
If a computer is used to store the complete works of Shakespeare, there is not a single letter or word
to found anywhere in the system. Every piece of information is first converted into a number that the
computer can locate and then manipulate as required.
BASIC interprets the words as numbers which the computer can then manipulate using only
addition, subtraction and features from Boolean logic that permits the computer to compare data
and select for certain attributes. - ie check to see if one number is bigger then or the same as
another, or to perform a defined task if one number OR another meets certain criteria.
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