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Comment by austinz | Hacker News Reader

> The BASIC language eliminated much of the complexity of FORTRAN by having a single number type. This simplified the programming model and avoided a class of errors caused by selection of the wrong type. The efficiencies that could have gained from having numerous number types proved to be insignificant.

I don't agree with that, and I don't think BASIC has much (if anything) to offer in terms of good language design.

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I tried finding out whether that "having a single number type" actually were true (the microcomputer versions used a percentage sign suffix (I%, J%) to denote integers).

From http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dartmouth/BASIC_Oct64..., that appears to be the case.

Off topic: in that PDF (page 4) the letter "Oh" is distinguished from the numeral "Zero" by having a diagonal slash through the"Oh". Yes, that program printed "NØ UNIQUE SØLUTIØN".

That made me think of the periodic rants here on HN about the supposedly neigh insurmountable inconsistencies in mathematical notation.

Not all microcomputer versions of BASIC used the percent sign to designate integers. The one I grew up using (Microsoft BASIC on the TRS-80 Color Computer) used only one representation for numbers, floating point (5 byte value, not IEEE 754 based).

Probably mean 'nigh'. Neigh is a sound horses make.

Yep, let's see whether I can blaim iOS autocorrect: nigh. No. Thanks for the feedback.

or nay...

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