17 engineers on Hacker News describe using BASIC first-hand: 4 endorse it, 0 regret it, 2 are mixed.
“At some level, I regret that I learned BASIC before an object-oriented language; at another, I'm glad that I did”
mixed · personal · Telemakhos · 2025-10-17 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I wouldn't wish GOTO/GOSUB on anyone, but the latter procedural versions of BASIC were very productive tools.”
mixed · production · 17 yr · ChicagoDave · 2022-12-18 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I never regret that I was introduced to BASIC first, and was taught that GOTO is not evil.”
endorse · personal · nom · 2016-11-13 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I don't regret growing up on BASIC as much.”
endorse · personal · Gruselbauer · 2016-10-15 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Even though BASIC is a fine language (it was my first) people can't relate to it anymore.”
endorse · personal · bliti · 2014-11-04 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I just found it more fun than video games, even though I could find no explanation anywhere”
endorse · personal · grandalf · 2010-12-29 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I went from Basic to Pascal to C/C++ to Java to Python which bear more than a passing resemblance to one another.”
neutral · personal · dventimi · 2023-12-27 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Learning BASIC made me feel OO, clear variable names and clean code was unnecessary and I made no effort learning that back then.”
neutral · personal · charlieyu1 · 2023-12-23 · source ↗ · wrong label?“avoid global variables and GOTO's”
neutral · personal · analog31 · 2020-06-25 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Having learned BASIC, FORTRAN 77, Pascal, PDP-11 ASM, Lisp at school, and some dBASE at work”
neutral · personal · Roboprog · 2016-06-19 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been coding for over 30 years now (Basic, ASM, C/C++, Java, Python, PHP, JS, Clojure)”
neutral · personal · rivo · 2014-12-11 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I got pretty far but it wasn't until 1996 or so that I really got into the swing of "serious" programming in C and C++.”
neutral · personal · breckinloggins · 2013-10-01 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Started out creating games in BASIC, then hacked around with PHP”
neutral · personal · lucaspiller · 2013-09-30 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I started with BASIC on the Amstrad CPC then Blitz Basic and 68000 assembly on the Amiga.”
neutral · personal · richardjdare · 2013-09-30 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I started with Basic and assembly in high school”
neutral · personal · ww520 · 2012-12-28 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I started writing up some BASIC programs on my TI-86 that would take in student's parameters and spit out solutions.”
neutral · personal · mumrah · 2012-08-09 · source ↗ · wrong label?“My first language was a form of BASIC.”
neutral · personal · Natsu · 2010-10-20 · source ↗ · wrong label?