Is BASIC dead ?

[Ioannis]

WOW what bloat....

Yes, but is dead easy for anyone to do it. Ready made libraries and you do not have to do anything but hit compile and program...

Fun is lost...

Ioannis

[andywpg]

In my case, I used to program in assembler, but I wasn't comfortable with it. I could get the job done....eventually. I tried 'C' and just didn't like it. I've been programming with BASIC since I was 15 (a LONG time ago) and PBP allows me to write code fast - and spend more time playing with the new toy I made!

I, for one, will be using it as long as I can........

[pedja089]

Last month I was helping colleague to finish his project for master, and he was using microC. To test hardware we just put some LCD print's, and monitor 4 inputs and count pulses on inputs, let say not more than 100 lines, and that used about 7K of code space, and it take almost 40mS for one pass without LCD...
Tried same with PBP and it took less than few mS with LCD print...

[dsicon]

right, this is why we need to wave the flag and beat the drums about how fast PBP3 executes and how easy to use PBP3 is,
people hear 'basic' and they get all snooty
but i guess there is also some difference in how people's brains are wired these days, i don' think they teach or maybe even mention basic anymore

[Charlie]

The vast majority of Microsoft macros are written in visual basic, and it's one of their key languages for developers, so the language is far from dead.
Write in what makes you comfortable. If you hope to get a job with your firmware skills, learn C. That's not new - been that way for 20 years at least.
If you already know basic, why would you use anything else?

[fowardbias]

I don't know if BASIC is dead, it does seem to take a back seat to C++ with the newer microcontroller development systems. I am more concerned about getting the 18F97J94 series added to the PB3 list. This series with the V-bat feature has an auto shutdown which allows for context saving of the data. It is the only 8-bit MC chip that will do this. We can still do all of the sleep modes(with other chips) because PBP2.6C allows in-line assembly, direct register access and handmade macros. This is will work but can be a total pain. I believe if MeLabs were to add this chip it would help many of us out there using solar or stand alone battery systems. Well, hope it happens. I noticed no recent updates to PB3? Is is running solid with the new MCS? Just a concerned hobbyist.

[rsocor01]

The first program language that I learned was Basic. Then, it came Fortran, Cobol and so on. C language came much later for me. So, needless to say that I feel much more comfortable programming PICs in Basic.

One thing is for sure. MELabs needs to keep up with the newest chips in order not to follow behind. It might be that in 10 or 20 years from now, the chips that we are used to program now will be outdated or discontinued by that time.