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

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.

Like many Microsoft BASIC programs, mine did weird, undocumented things to work around the language’s limitations–most of all its sluggishness, another fact Kemeny and Kurtz weren’t happy about.

The pioneer of structured programming, Edsger Dijkstra, said in 1975, for example, that it was almost impossible to teach good programming to students who had previously come into contact with BASIC.