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If BASIC were to reinvent itself for the modern era, not as a nostalgia exercise, what would it look like? What niche would it fill? Could it ever be a proper sysadmin tool like it was in the 8 and 16 bit eras? #programming #linux #windows #freebsd #openbsd #sysadmin #basic
#Windows #Linux #programming #freebsd #openbsd #sysadmin #basic
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mkj
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mkj
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I think that today, either Python, Javascript or a somewhat distant third shell scripting (bash/*nix, Windows Powershell) basically fills the niche that corrresponds to what BASIC did in the early microcomputer era (1980 +/- 3-4 years or so). And I think it's safe to say that both shell scripting and Python sees significant use as a sysadmin tool.
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Daniel Lakeland
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Daniel Lakeland
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@mkj
for us LISP nerds, scheme in the Guix ecosystem.

The thing about BASIC was it was an easy interactive entry point to programming. These days we have lots of interactive entry points. in some ways the issue is too many options.

Also in the late 80s Kemeney and Kurtz reinvented BASIC as TrueBasic and I learned a bunch on that system in high school, so basically its already been done

truebasic.com/

@profoundlynerdy

True BASIC

True BASIC
@Profoundly Nerdy @mkj
in reply to Daniel Lakeland

Ramin Honary
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Ramin Honary
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If BASIC were to reinvent itself for the modern era, not as a nostalgia exercise, what would it look like?


@profoundlynerdy it would look exactly like Lua, or maybe Python. Actaully, I think Lua is a lot more BASIC-like in it’s syntax, so I am going with Lua.

But both of those languages were designed to be “intuitive” with a syntax somewhat similar to what most people learn from their mathematics curriculum during high school, and a procedural operational semantics, with some object-oriented features (similar to VBasic). Both are small scripting languages with memory management that obscures the low-level details of the Von Neumann architecture computers on which they run, and so feel a bit like a high-level assembly language with more user-friendly features.

Also, it is easy to get started with making your own little games in Lua, much like BASIC was back in the day. Try playing around with game engines like Love, or Luanti. For a Lua-scriptable programming text editor, try Micro.

@dlakelan @mkj

Luanti | Open source voxel game engine - Luanti

An open source voxel game engine. Play one of our many games, mod a game to your liking, make your own game, or play on a multiplayer server.
www.luanti.org
@Daniel Lakeland @Profoundly Nerdy @mkj
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Ramin Honary

Daniel Lakeland
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Daniel Lakeland
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@ramin_hal9001
oh yeah Lua is a legit good alternative to Bash which also doesn't require a heavy install load (installing python is pretty heavyweight for embedded devices for example). we used it on a version of the cake-autorate project and it worked great (OpenWrt package maintenance issues notwithstanding).

@profoundlynerdy @mkj

@Profoundly Nerdy @mkj @Ramin Honary
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Ramin Honary
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Ramin Honary
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oh, cool! I hadn’t thought to use Lua as a replacement shell scripting language, but It sure would be. It would be very cross-platform as well, though probably not as ubiquitous as Bash.

@profoundlynerdy @mkj

@Profoundly Nerdy @mkj
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to mkj

Regionales Retro-RZ, DECT 7407
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Regionales Retro-RZ, DECT 7407
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@mkj I’d argue against that Python is too complicated to set up and too rich, to be a comparable Basic successor in the terms the OP described.

Setting up virtual environments? Installing libraries from the net?

In true Basic fashion, there would need to be 1 userland, and that’s it. Not an extensible universe.

And yes, nowadays that userland would include http get/post and JSON parsing.

@mkj
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