Endless Loop: The History of the BASIC Programming Language (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)

"John Kemeny liked shrimp, football, science fiction, and Agatha Christie mysteries, but hated, absolutely hated, batch processing"-- Chapter 3, Endless LoopYou have to love a book that has sentences like that in it!This is a fascinating book that looks back at one of the most influential programming languages ever; one which, love it or loath it, shaped much of the computing industry that we know today.Worth reading if you are in the least bit interested in the history of computing generally, or if like me you are a developer, this really is a must - it's not a BASIC programming manual but rather a well researched history book. It reaches back to the start of computers on US campuses, all the way through the 1980s , taking in how BASIC changed the perception of who could use computers, how Microsoft used BASIC to establish themselves as the dominant force in so many markets, and noting the dismay of the original authors as what they saw as the proliferation of "Street Basics".The print quality is good by the way - not always the case with niche publishing titles. My only minor criticism is that the author does have a tendency to write overly long sentences containing bracketed sub-clauses which themselves are long sentences. Several times I had to go back through a paragraph to make sure I understood what applied to what. But it's really not a distraction overall.Additionally, despite being a US-centric narrative (inevitably, given where BASIC originated), it even gives a nod to Sinclair QL SuperBASIC, so a bonus point form me for that alone :)Highly recommended.

I enjoyed this book. There are one or two very minor errors - e.g. I believe that Commodore 64 had 40 columns not 80 as standard - but nothing to disrupt the flow. Rather USA-centric, but that's to be expected considering the subject matter, although a bit more on the UK's very vibrant home computer scene in the 80s would have gone down well.

I gave this wonderful book to two old friends for Christmas. Both enjoyed reading it. Now... where is the history of RSTS/E...