The “Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Codei” is a simple computer programming language developed to enable students to learn programming skills. In the first instance BASICi used numbers at the beginning of each line (or instruction). The numbers would dictate the order in which the instructions were processed by the computer. They were numbered 10,20,30 and so on, meaning that additional instruction could be added between lines at a later date. A 'GOTO' statement may also be used which would allow a program to return to an earlier instruction during execution. An example might be an 'if' clause contained on a line, let us say line 140, which would instruct the computer to return to line 30 if a variable is less than 10. This instruction would appear like this:
140 IF (N<10) THEN GOTO 30
BASIC was developed in the 1960s and has, since then, developed into a more robust language which can be used to create more advanced programs. Modern BASIC implementations use 'while' loops that can perform a series of instructions providing a specified case is true. Another development is an increase in the range of data BASIC development software can support.
