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The first BASIC

This blog is about simple computing. I view this from a programmer's rather than a user's perspective. With the BASIC language, though, this line has always been blurred.

Simple computing started in 1963 when Kemeny and Kurtz first designed the BASIC language.

Here is a scanned PDF of the original Dartmouth BASIC manual.

Tools like Liberty Basic and the upcoming Run Basic are the true succesors to Dartmouth BASIC.

There is nothing simple about Java, .NET and the tools festering around these platforms. Powerful, yes. Simple, no. Unlike Visual Basic 6 (and its predecessors), there is no attempt to strike a balance between simplicity and power.
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