Preliminary Material¶
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Preface¶
2903 Educational System BASIC was developed by North Staffordshire Polytechnic Computer Centre in conjunction with International Computers Limited, as part of the ICL 2903 Educational System. The design of the system and the specification of the language were influenced by many factors: the needs of the potential user, the characteristics of the 2903, existing implementation of BASIC, both within ICL and elsewhere, and the developments towards an international standard for BASIC.
The BASIC language was introduced at Dartmouth College, USA, in 1963, and its development since then had been centred there. However, many implementors of BASIC systems have introduced new features in their own way, and in 1973 attempts were made to encourage some standardisation, with the publication of BASIC specification, 6th edition (Dartmouth College) and Specification for standard BASIC (G.M. Bull, W. Freeman, S.J. Garland; NCC). Since then the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) have set up committees to define a standard for the BASIC language which will have the full authority of those bodies.
The definition of BASIC for the 2903 Educational System has relied considerably on the documents mentioned above, and in addition the BASIC manuals of a large number of manufacturers and bureaux have been consulted. The aims throughout have been twofold: to define a language which is true to the original spirit of BASIC – that it should be natural in its constructions and easy to learn and use - and which at the same time provides a set of features sufficiently varied and powerful to allow a wide range of educational and applications programs to be written and processed efficiently.