5  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Basic  \Ba"sic\,  a. 
  1.  (Chem.) 
  a  Relating  to  a  base;  performing  the  office  of  a  base  in 
  a  salt. 
  b  Having  the  base  in  excess,  or  the  amount  of  the  base 
  atomically  greater  than  that  of  the  acid,  or  exceeding 
  in  proportion  that  of  the  related  neutral  salt. 
  c  Apparently  alkaline,  as  certain  normal  salts  which 
  exhibit  alkaline  reactions  with  test  paper. 
 
  2.  (Min.)  Said  of  crystalline  rocks  which  contain  a 
  relatively  low  percentage  of  silica,  as  basalt. 
 
  {Basic  salt}  (Chem.),  a  salt  formed  from  a  base  or  hydroxide 
  by  the  partial  replacement  of  its  hydrogen  by  a  negative 
  or  acid  element  or  radical. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  basic 
  adj  1:  pertaining  to  or  constituting  a  base  or  basis;  "a  basic 
  fact";  "the  basic  ingredients";  "basic  changes  in 
  public  opinion  occur  because  of  changes  in  priorities" 
  [ant:  {incidental}] 
  2:  reduced  to  the  simplest  and  most  significant  form  possible 
  without  loss  of  generality;  "a  basic  story  line";  "a 
  canonical  syllable  pattern"  [syn:  {canonic},  {canonical}] 
  3:  of  primary  importance;  "basic  truths"  [syn:  {basal},  {primary}] 
  4:  of  elementary  education;  "a  basal  reader";  "children  in  the 
  beginning  reading  classes";  "the  primary  grades"  [syn:  {abecedarian}, 
  {basal},  {beginning(a)},  {primary}] 
  5:  serving  as  a  base  or  starting  point;  "a  basic  course  in 
  Russian";  "basic  training  for  raw  recruits";  "a  set  of 
  basic  tools";  "an  introductory  art  course"  [syn:  {introductory}] 
  6:  (chemistry)  of  or  denoting  or  of  the  nature  of  or  containing 
  a  base 
  n  1:  a  popular  programming  language  that  is  relatively  easy  to 
  learn  (Beginner's  All-purpose  Symbolic  Instruction 
  Code);  no  longer  in  general  use  [syn:  {BASIC}] 
  2:  (usually  plural)  a  necessary  commodity  for  which  demand  is 
  constant  [syn:  {staple}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  BASIC  /bay'-sic/  n.  A  programming  language,  originally 
  designed  for  Dartmouth's  experimental  timesharing  system  in  the  early 
  1960s,  which  for  many  years  was  the  leading  cause  of  brain  damage  in 
  proto-hackers.  Edsger  W.  Dijkstra  observed  in  "Selected  Writings  on 
  Computing:  A  Personal  Perspective"  that  "It  is  practically  impossible  to 
  teach  good  programming  style  to  students  that  have  had  prior  exposure 
  to  BASIC:  as  potential  programmers  they  are  mentally  mutilated  beyond 
  hope  of  regeneration."  This  is  another  case  (like  {Pascal})  of  the 
  cascading  {lossage}  that  happens  when  a  language  deliberately  designed 
  as  an  educational  toy  gets  taken  too  seriously.  A  novice  can  write 
  short  BASIC  programs  (on  the  order  of  10-20  lines)  very  easily;  writing 
  anything  longer  a  is  very  painful,  and  b  encourages  bad  habits  that 
  will  make  it  harder  to  use  more  powerful  languages  well  This  wouldn't 
  be  so  bad  if  historical  accidents  hadn't  made  BASIC  so  common  on  low-end 
  micros  in  the  1980s.  As  it  is  it  probably  ruined  tens  of  thousands  of 
  potential  wizards. 
 
  [1995:  Some  languages  called  `BASIC'  aren't  quite  this  nasty  any 
  more  having  acquired  Pascal-  and  C-like  procedures  and  control  structures 
  and  shed  their  line  numbers.  --ESR] 
 
  Note:  the  name  is  commonly  parsed  as  Beginner's  All-purpose  Symbolic 
  Instruction  Code,  but  this  is  a  {backronym}.  BASIC  was  originally 
  named  Basic,  simply  because  it  was  a  simple  and  basic  programming 
  language.  Because  most  programming  language  names  were  in  fact  acronyms, 
  BASIC  was  often  capitalized  just  out  of  habit  or  to  be  silly.  No  acronym 
  for  BASIC  originally  existed  or  was  intended  (as  one  can  verify  by  reading 
  texts  through  the  early  1970s).  Later  around  the  mid-1970s,  people  began 
  to  make  up  backronyms  for  BASIC  because  they  weren't  sure  Beginner's 
  All-purpose  Symbolic  Instruction  Code  is  the  one  that  caught  on 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  BASIC 
 
    Beginner's  All-purpose  Symbolic  Instruction  Code. 
 
  A  simple  language  designed  by  John  G.  Kemeny  and  Thomas 
  E.  Kurtz  at  Dartmouth  College  in  1963.  It  first  ran  on  an 
  {IBM  704}  on  1964-05-01.  It  was  designed  for  quick  and  easy 
  programming  by  students  and  beginners.  BASIC  exists  in  many 
  dialects,  and  is  popular  on  {microcomputer}s  with  sound  and 
  graphics  support.  Most  micro  versions  are  interactive  and 
  interpreted,  but  the  original  Dartmouth  BASIC  was  compiled. 
 
  BASIC  was  originally  designed  for  Dartmouth's  experimental 
  {time-sharing}  system  and  has  since  become  the  leading  cause 
  of  brain-damage  in  proto-hackers.  This  is  another  case  (like 
  {Pascal})  of  the  cascading  lossage  that  happens  when  a 
  language  deliberately  designed  as  an  educational  toy  gets 
  taken  too  seriously.  A  novice  can  write  short  BASIC  programs 
  (on  the  order  of  10--20  lines)  very  easily;  writing  anything 
  longer  is  a  very  painful,  and  b  encourages  bad  habits  that 
  will  make  it  harder  to  use  more  powerful  languages  well  This 
  wouldn't  be  so  bad  if  historical  accidents  hadn't  made  BASIC 
  so  common  on  low-end  micros.  As  it  is  it  ruins  thousands  of 
  potential  wizards  a  year. 
 
  Originally,  all  references  to  code,  both  {GOTO}  and  GOSUB 
  (subroutine  call)  referred  to  the  destination  by  its  line 
  number.  This  allowed  for  very  simple  editing  in  the  days 
  before  {text  editor}s  were  considered  an  essential  tool  on 
  every  computer.  Just  typing  the  line  number  deleted  the  line 
  and  to  edit  a  line  you  just  typed  the  new  line  with  the  same 
  number.  Programs  were  typically  numbered  in  steps  of  ten  to 
  allow  for  insertions.  Later  versions,  such  as  {BASIC  V}, 
  allow  {GOTO}-less  {structured  programming}  with  named 
  procedures  and  functions,  IF-THEN-ELSE-ENDIF  constructs  and 
  {WHILE}  loops  etc 
 
  Early  BASICs  had  no  graphic  operations  except  with  graphic 
  characters.  In  the  1970s  BASIC  {interpreter}s  became  standard 
  features  in  {mainframe}s  and  {minicomputer}s.  Some  versions 
  included  matrix  operations  as  language  primitives. 
 
  A  {public  domain}  {interpreter}  for  a  mixture  of  {DEC}'s 
  {MU-Basic}  and  {Microsoft  Basic}  is  {here 
  (ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/Unix-c/languages/basic/basic.tar-z)}. 
  A  {yacc}  {parser}  and  {interpreter}  were  in  the 
  comp.sources.unix  archives  volume  2. 
 
  See  also  {ANSI  Minimal  BASIC},  {bournebasic},  {bwBASIC}, 
  {ubasic}. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1995-03-15) 
 
 
 
  From  V.E.R.A.  --  Virtual  Entity  of  Relevant  Acronyms  13  March  2001  [vera]: 
 
  BASIC 
  Beginner's  All-purpose  Symbolic  Instruction  Code 
 
 

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