John G. Kemeny (–1992)

Among John G. Kemeny's many accomplishments is the co-invention of BASIC. Beginners All Pupose Symbolic Instruction Code was the first programming language many of us learned. It was a simple language developed for non technical people to extract quick solutions from computers. This slim volume is based on a series of lectures delivered at the American Museum of Natural History in 1971. Much of what is discussed here is "time-sharing", a concept pretty much lost, except that it carries on inside of central processors everywhere. Time sharing is no longer done between users on a large system, but between programs inside a small one. BASIC will always be one of my languages, even if it is now about as useful as Latin.… (més)

Kemeny & Kurtz wrote this book for use either as a textbook for an introductory course in BASIC programming or as a reference for self-study.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One introduces the reader to the basic ideas of programming, answering such questions as: "What is a Computer?" "What is a Program?" "What is BASIC?" "How is a Computer Used?" "What is Time Sharing?" Part One concludes with chapters on Loops, Lists, Tables, Functions, Subroutines, Strings, and Debugging. The chapters in Part One should be studied in their entirety in the order presented. There are helpful exercises at the end of each chapter.

Part Two introduces the reader to applications that are problem-solving in their presentation and development. These can be taken in any order. A good many of the applications are in the field of mathematics. For instance, there are problems from Elementary Mathematics (trigonomety, roots of equations, and curve plotting), Number Theory (factoring, modular arithmetic, and prime numbers), Simulation (random numbers, baseball, and Knight's Tour), Business (compound interest, tax depreciation, decision trees, and critical path analysis), Statistics (linear regression, contingency tables, and ranking procedures), Vectors and Matrices (the MAT instructions, electrical networks, and Markov Chains), and Calculus (polynomials, integration, Taylor's Approximation, and differential equations). At the end of each chapter in Part Two, there are both exercises and major projects.

Note. Kemeny & Kurtz are the Fathers of BASIC, having co-developed this programming language in 1964.… (més)

In 1964, the BASIC programming language got its start as Dartmouth BASIC, so named because it was designed and implemented at Dartmouth College by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. BASIC was invented to give Dartmouth students in the Arts a simple programming language that was easy-to-learn. BASIC was cooked up to let operators sitting at remote terminals write and run programs interactively instead of serially, a single job at a time, wherein punched cards were fed in batches to a computer in s room filled with large equipment. Consequently, Dartmouth BASIC is best known for giving computer programming a human face and making it accessible to everyone. Teletype teleprinters were used as the terminal units of choice for the innovative Dartmouth Time Sharing System.

Twenty years later, three years after the birth of the IBM personal computer, True BASIC was developed by the same John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. They hoped it would supplant Bill Gates' Microsoft BASIC which they regarded as a corruption of their brain child, Dartmouth BASIC. Incidentally, when the street fight was over, Bill Gates' "corrupt" version of Microsoft BASIC, later QuickBASIC, and finally Visual BASIC, emerged as the winner, not True BASIC.

Structured BASIC Programming (1987) was written by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz as a textbook for an introductory course in BASIC. It is assumed that students either will be in possession of or will have access to a True BASIC reference manual, True BASIC being the version of BASIC used in this book. It is also assumed that the readers of this book are reasonably competent in high school algebra.

The emphasis in this book is on algorithms and problem-solving. The book is divided into four parts: (1) Introduction to Programming, (2) Text Applications, (3) Mathematical Applications, and (4) Other Applications. Part One should be studied in its entirety before moving on to the rest of the book. Parts Two, Three, & Four can be read in any order.

The book also stresses the use of subroutines, both internal and external, for building reusable libraries of code. DO-LOOP and SELECT-CASE are promoted in the place of the GOTO statement for creating structured BASIC programs. Mathematical applications are enhanced by the presence of True BASIC's powerful MAT statements for matrix manipulation, a capability that is missing from all versions of Microsoft BASIC. Some of the "Other Applications" in Part Four include business applications, game applications, and graphics applications with animation and music.

As this review is being written, forty-six years have passed since BASIC was given life. Its direct descendant, True BASIC, is still in use in spite of its usurpers and detractors. At True BASIC's internet site you will find web pages devoted to Free Demos, Products, Support, FAQ, Schools, Books, Polls, and What's New. See http://www.truebasic.com.… (més)