Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I don't think QBasic's mainstream popularity can be understated. Googling "gorillas.bas" gives you a predictable result. I suppose it can be argued that Gorillas and Nibbles are partly responsible for QBasic's popularity (is there a lesson in here somewhere?).

However, like many others, QBasic was not my first experience with a BASIC language. Prior to that was GW-BASIC on PC (it was part of our introductory course to Computers at high school), and before that was Sinclair BASIC, which I learned in part from a book called "Peek, Poke, Byte and RAM"

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=2000269

But my first encounter with a programming language was Logo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)

I'm sure there was a BBC Kids show that featured Logo programming (yes, they drew shapes with the turtle), but I can't remember the name. What I liked about Logo was that, as a child, it seemed very intuitive, and I felt like that even without having touched a computer I knew what programming was about, which is a lot more than I can say for any other language I've worked with.




PBS had a great show directed at children called 3-2-1 Contact in the 1980s, which I remember featuring Logo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-2-1_Contact


Wow "Peek, Poke, Byte and RAM" that was my first programming book, thanks for bringing that memory back.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: