The history of basic computer programming languages dates back far. Learn more about the BASIC & C coding languages that got everything started.

If you are a certain age, your first programming language was almost certainly BASIC. You probably at least saw the famous book by Ahl, titled BASIC Computer Games or 101 BASIC Computer Games.

The language that made that all possible. They called it the Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code— BASIC. Before BASIC, life in the computer programming world was complicated.

50 years ago today, the BASIC computer language was born as two math professors from Dartmouth College used it to help run the school's computer system for the first time.

Thomas E. Kurtz, a Dartmouth College professor who co-created the novice-friendly computer code known as Basic during the 1960s and helped make it the industry standard for programmers during the ...

This is why I’ve long argued that BASIC is the most consequential language in the history of computing. It’s a language for noobs, sure, but back then most everyone was a noob.

Four sounds like an awful lot of languages to learn for a beginner, but the idea is to get a broad understanding of programming and the basics down. As for which programming language to learn first?

In 1964, scientists at Dartmouth College ran the very first computer program written in BASIC, which ushered in a new era of computing.

Because BASIC is the first language that many computer scientists learn, it has been, for generations, a mother tongue of technologists.

Long before the days of laptops and smartphones, Thomas E. Kurtz worked to give more students access to computers. That work helped propel generations into a new world. Kurtz has died at 96.

Because BASIC is the first language that many computer scientists learn, it has been, for generations, a mother tongue of technologists.