2007-12-31 02:34:55 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Programming & Design
Programming languages evolve, like everything else.
Why are there so many versions of PlayStation?
Newer, faster, better, more powerful, greater functionality.
Comparing todays high-level programming languages like VB.NET to early languages like BASIC is like comparing your HD DVD player to the film footage from World War II.
2007-12-31 03:41:49 · answer #1 · answered by rod 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How many different versions are there? Aside from maybe educational purposes, I don't think BASIC is used by anyone anymore. Educational programming environments like graphing calculators and BASIC stamps (I'm assuming they use BASIC) are all that I can think of that actually still use it. (Try running QBASIC on a XP or Vista machine) So for each of it's few remaining limited uses, I can see there being a different version.
That is unless you consider Visual Basic to be BASIC, but they are so different on so many levels I don't think you can really say they are. While you can say, for example, that C is a subset of C++, you can not say BASIC is a subset of VB because BASIC code will not compile on a VB compiler.
A better question would be 'why are there so many different versions of C/C++?' or 'why does Microsoft have to go and make everyone's life so difficult by releasing a completely new version of Visual C++ every few years?'
2007-12-31 02:46:20 · answer #2 · answered by limaxray 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It has iterated out to different platforms with different processing.
Visual Basic .NET (the latest version on the Microsoft side) compiles the BASIC code into Common Language Runtime (CLR) code, which is the same regardless of which .NET language is used.
Other versions of BASIC are specific to the platforms and processors on which they are designed to run.
2007-12-31 02:39:09 · answer #3 · answered by Scotty Doesnt Know 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋