Thomas E. Kurtz has died
News of Thomas E. Kurtz’s death has prompted widespread reflection on the impact of BASIC, the beginner-friendly programming language he co-created at Dartmouth in the 1960s. Commenters credit BASIC with democratizing access to computing, sparking countless careers by being built into early home computers and school systems, even as they note its technical limitations and contrast it with later “structured” or more mathematically rigorous approaches. Many share personal anecdotes of learning to code as children on machines from the Apple II to the ZX Spectrum, emphasizing how BASIC functioned as an approachable gateway to deeper programming and computer science.
Legacy of BASIC and Kurtz’s Contribution
- Widely credited with democratizing computing and removing it from an expert “priesthood.”
- BASIC seen as the first language for an entire generation, especially in the 70s–90s and early microcomputer era.
- Emphasis on its role as an easy on-ramp: immediate feedback at a REPL, simple syntax, no toolchain setup.
- Many note BASIC’s presence everywhere: ROMs on home micros, manuals, school systems, calculators, business minis, and magazines.
- Several argue the true innovation wasn’t the language design itself but the vision of broad, open access to computing.
Personal Impact and Nostalgia
- Numerous stories of first programs:
10 PRINT ... 20 GOTO 10, games, graphics demos, simple business tools. - Many describe BASIC as life-changing: led to CS study, first jobs, or long software careers.
- Time/place variety: Apple II, TRS-80, Commodore 64, ZX-81, Atari, TI machines, HP/DEC systems, DTSS, QBasic, GW-BASIC, Rocky Mountain BASIC, etc.
- Some recount BASIC-powered systems still used in serious domains (finance, nuclear plants).
Language Design, Pedagogy, and Critique
- Dijkstra’s criticisms surface: opposition to
GOTO, insistence on mathematically rigorous, proof-first CS education. - Contrasted with “constructionist” or experiment-first learning where students tinker, debug, and learn by doing.
- Several note that few programmers actually learned in the highly formal way Dijkstra advocated.
- Discussion that classic BASIC does not scale well: unstructured control flow, global state, line numbers; large programs can become unreadable “spaghetti.”
- Counterpoint: with discipline and standards, sizable and maintainable BASIC systems were built.
Comparisons with Other Languages and Evolutions
- Comparisons to Pascal: stricter, more “serious,” but also fragmented in practice; expectations differed.
- Mentions of successors and relatives: VB, VB for Excel, TI-BASIC, Pick BASIC, LibertyBASIC, and modern languages like Python, Racket, Smalltalk as better-scalable teaching tools.
- Some modern language designers say BASIC’s ease, especially for strings and interactive use, influenced later design decisions.
Community and Meta Discussion
- Multiple calls for, and observations about, the HN black bar memorial.
- Suggestions for an HN “hall of fame” page listing pioneers commemorated this way.