Your question begs an opinion, rather than a finite answer, so here's my opinion. You also said "basic programming" rather than "Basic Programming", so I'll need to offer two opinions, rather then one.
Once you learn any programming language, any other that you may learn will be somewhat easier to learn, since there are many underlying fundamental principles and types of operators which will remain the same, or similar. Some of these areas are: use of binary and hex number representations, elementary logic flow and conditional statements (IF ... THEN, ON ... GOTO, GOTO vs. GOSUB ... RETURN, SELECT .... CASE, etc), iteration methods (FOR ... NEXT, WHILE ... WEND, etc), and use of embedded data (DATA.... READ). Also the use of conditional and boolean operators will remain nearly the same (=, <, >, <>, NOT; AND, OR, XOR) and many internal functions may have similar names (ABS, NEG, SQRT, SIN, COS, TAN, MAX, MIN, etc). Although I have used examples (above) from the Basic Programming Language, the examples could have been from some other compiled or interpreted programming language equally well. Now I will limit what I just said to higher level compiled or interpreted languages ONLY. Assembled languages, or machine code are another thing altogether.
Learning one of the many subsets of the Basic Programming Language MAY help to some degree in learning another. At the level of main-frame computers, some mini-computers, and PC's this is probably most true. Once you get into the area of microcontrollers, it tends to be somewhat less true primarily due to the more specific and exacting nature of microcontrollers, as well as their individual idiosyncracies. I must limit my opinions and comments here to those subsets of the Basic Programming Language which generally follow and adhere to the principles of operation and formats of the original Dartmouth Basic Programming Language. These do NOT include forms-based Basic Languages such a Visual Basic and the like.
Specifically VBASIC (Visual Basic) is more like other forms-based languages (Visual [noparse][[/noparse]fill in the launguage du jour]), than it is like other Basic Languages, IMHO. Although supposedly deemed easier to learn, I find them all almost incomprehensible, since all of the (8 or 10) formats and subsets of the Basic Programming Language that I've been exposed to, ALL follow the original precepts of Dartmouth Basic, including earlier IBM Mainframe Basics.
If one were itching for a PBASIC comparison language, all I can say is that PBASIC is far more like QBASIC than it is like VBASIC; limiting myself here to Microsoft products. I suppose the following also should be said as well. If you learn one microcontroller based Basic Language, learning any other microcontroller based Basic Language should be made easier by having a good foundation in the first language you learrned. Again, that's not to say they will be the same, merely similar, but with many of the same underpinnigs due to the similarity of the underlying platform (the microcontroller). This also provides certain differences as well, as noted earlier.
lobo
Posts: 100
Comments
Your question begs an opinion, rather than a finite answer, so here's my opinion. You also said "basic programming" rather than "Basic Programming", so I'll need to offer two opinions, rather then one.
Once you learn any programming language, any other that you may learn will be somewhat easier to learn, since there are many underlying fundamental principles and types of operators which will remain the same, or similar. Some of these areas are: use of binary and hex number representations, elementary logic flow and conditional statements (IF ... THEN, ON ... GOTO, GOTO vs. GOSUB ... RETURN, SELECT .... CASE, etc), iteration methods (FOR ... NEXT, WHILE ... WEND, etc), and use of embedded data (DATA.... READ). Also the use of conditional and boolean operators will remain nearly the same (=, <, >, <>, NOT; AND, OR, XOR) and many internal functions may have similar names (ABS, NEG, SQRT, SIN, COS, TAN, MAX, MIN, etc). Although I have used examples (above) from the Basic Programming Language, the examples could have been from some other compiled or interpreted programming language equally well. Now I will limit what I just said to higher level compiled or interpreted languages ONLY. Assembled languages, or machine code are another thing altogether.
Learning one of the many subsets of the Basic Programming Language MAY help to some degree in learning another. At the level of main-frame computers, some mini-computers, and PC's this is probably most true. Once you get into the area of microcontrollers, it tends to be somewhat less true primarily due to the more specific and exacting nature of microcontrollers, as well as their individual idiosyncracies. I must limit my opinions and comments here to those subsets of the Basic Programming Language which generally follow and adhere to the principles of operation and formats of the original Dartmouth Basic Programming Language. These do NOT include forms-based Basic Languages such a Visual Basic and the like.
Specifically VBASIC (Visual Basic) is more like other forms-based languages (Visual [noparse][[/noparse]fill in the launguage du jour]), than it is like other Basic Languages, IMHO. Although supposedly deemed easier to learn, I find them all almost incomprehensible, since all of the (8 or 10) formats and subsets of the Basic Programming Language that I've been exposed to, ALL follow the original precepts of Dartmouth Basic, including earlier IBM Mainframe Basics.
If one were itching for a PBASIC comparison language, all I can say is that PBASIC is far more like QBASIC than it is like VBASIC; limiting myself here to Microsoft products. I suppose the following also should be said as well. If you learn one microcontroller based Basic Language, learning any other microcontroller based Basic Language should be made easier by having a good foundation in the first language you learrned. Again, that's not to say they will be the same, merely similar, but with many of the same underpinnigs due to the similarity of the underlying platform (the microcontroller). This also provides certain differences as well, as noted earlier.
I hope that was helpful and not confusing.
Regards,
Bruce Bates