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Post BASIC and Visual BASIC
Created by John Eipper on 02/05/14 3:08 AM

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BASIC and Visual BASIC (Jordi Molins, -Spain, 02/05/14 3:08 am)

Henry Levin (4 February) asked if BASIC is still used at any level.

BASIC is not among the most popular programming languages, with Python, Java and C++ taking the lead:

http://blog.codeeval.com/codeevalblog/2014#.UvEn3fldXT9

However, I believe there is a lot of Visual Basic legacy code as Excel scripts (the so-called VBA), especially within the corporate/banking world.

Even though I learned to program with BASIC, there is no reason to use it as a programming language unless you are forced to manage legacy code. Python as a generalist language, and R as a scientific programming language, are infinitely better suited for anything else.

JE comments: Python, according to the link above, is by far the most common programming language in use today. The R language, specifically suited for statistical computing and graphics, was designed by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman. That's where the "R" comes from, I presume. Here's a (to my brain, cryptic) primer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(programming_language)