A silly question for the evening.

where to find the solar eclipse program?

does a collection of programs for mmbasic7 or picomite exist?

in former times I found collections for the cmm1 and so on.

should we start a service  or a location or something like that to systematicly host such software?

should be this ...

Solar eclipse

ok and thanks.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/basic-programs-from-sky-telescope/
Is a collection of BASIC astronomy programs with line numbers.

What was the definition in "The Devil's Data Processing Dictionary"? Something like:

BASIC
Containing relatively little silica.
Also a programming language designed to teach the student how to increment line numbers.

:)

Was Dijkstra a Dijk?

Dijkstra was right that early BASIC could teach poor habits if it was the only model of programming a student saw. But he overstated the case: millions of people learned useful programming through BASIC, and later BASIC dialects added the structure and abstraction he valued. The fairest reading is that he was attacking a particular 1975 educational environment and style of thought, not condemning every language ever called BASIC.

The entry I can verify is from Kelly-Bootle’s later The Computer Contradictionary (1995), which he describes as descended from The Devil’s DP Dictionary; it may have been revised from the 1981 original.

BASIC n. [Origin: Either acronym for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code or Geology: basic “containing relatively little silica.”] Originally, a simple mid-level language used to test the student’s ability to increment line numbers, but now available only in complex, extended versions. See EXTENDED BASIC, VISUAL BASIC. ~To determine the amount of silica in your code, use INSTR(1,X$,"SILICA") on all your strings. Scores below 5 are reassuring; scores over, say, 10 mean that you are probably using FORTRAN by mistake.

What the joke means
It mocks BASIC’s early line-number-based programming style, where programmers had to renumber or insert numbered lines to edit a program.

The “geology” definition plays on basic rocks being low in silica, turning the acronym into an absurd pseudo-scientific pun.

The closing “silica in your code” gag extends that pun, implying that overly elaborate BASIC resembles FORTRAN rather than the simple language BASIC was meant to be.

So, in short: Kelly-Bootle defines BASIC as a once-simple teaching language whose later “extended” versions had become bloated and complicated.
Edited 2026-10-29 15:46 by barewires

That was exactly the definition I was attempting to remember. :)  I have the book somewhere but I'm not sure where now. Brilliant!

Form the book: