BASIC
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Programming
| Stands for | Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
BASIC stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a programming abbreviation.
A family of easy-to-learn programming languages built into most home computers of the late 1970s and 1980s, where users typed numbered lines such as 10 PRINT "HELLO". Visual Basic later carried the name into Windows development.
Example: Kids in the 1980s typed BASIC listings from magazines into their Commodore 64s.
Usage notes
Created by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1964 to give non-science students access to computing. Microsoft's first product was a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 in 1975. Edsger Dijkstra famously claimed it damaged students' ability to learn good programming.
Related abbreviations
More programming abbreviations
- AOT – Ahead-of-time (compilation)
- API – Application programming interface
- ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange
- AST – Abstract syntax tree
- awk – Aho, Weinberger and Kernighan
- Bash – Bourne Again Shell
- BDD – Behavior-driven development
- BFS – Breadth-first search
- BNF – Backus-Naur form
- BST – Binary search tree
- CD – Continuous delivery
- chmod – Change mode