Editing Imperative programming (section)

===Basic===
[[BASIC]] (1964) stands for "Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code." It was developed at [[Dartmouth College]] for all of their students to learn.<ref name="cpl_3rd-ch2-30">{{cite book
  | last = Wilson
  | first = Leslie B.
  | title = Comparative Programming Languages, Third Edition
  | publisher = Addison-Wesley
  | year = 2001
  | page = 30
  | isbn = 0-201-71012-9
}}</ref> If a student did not go on to a more powerful language, the student would still remember Basic.<ref name="cpl_3rd-ch2-30"/> A Basic interpreter was installed in the [[microcomputers]] manufactured in the late 1970s. As the microcomputer industry grew, so did the language.<ref name="cpl_3rd-ch2-30"/>

Basic pioneered the [[Read–eval–print loop|interactive session]].<ref name="cpl_3rd-ch2-30"/> It offered [[operating system]] commands within its environment:
* The 'new' command created an empty slate
* Statements evaluated immediately
* Statements could be programmed by preceding them with a line number
* The 'list' command displayed the program
* The 'run' command executed the program

However, the Basic syntax was too simple for large programs.<ref name="cpl_3rd-ch2-30"/> Recent dialects added structure and object-oriented extensions. [[Microsoft|Microsoft's]] [[Visual Basic]] is still widely used and produces a [[graphical user interface]].<ref name="cpl_3rd-ch2-31">{{cite book
  | last = Wilson
  | first = Leslie B.
  | title = Comparative Programming Languages, Third Edition
  | publisher = Addison-Wesley
  | year = 2001
  | page = 31
  | isbn = 0-201-71012-9
}}</ref>