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Data General Extended BASIC

Data General Extended BASIC, also widely known as Nova Extended BASIC, was a BASIC programming language interpreter for the Data General Nova series minicomputers. It was based on the seminal Dartmouth BASIC, including the Fifth Edition's string variables and powerful commands for matrix manipulation. In contrast to the compile-and-go Dartmouth BASIC, Extended BASIC was an interpreter. To Dartmouth's simple string manipulation system, Extended BASIC added array slicing, which was common on BASICs of the era after its introduction in HP Time-Shared BASIC. It became common in 1980s era microcomputers that did not use Microsoft BASIC, like Sinclair BASIC, Atari BASIC and others. This contrasts with the Microsoft style which uses string functions like , and thus makes porting string code to other dialects somewhat difficult. Data General later purchased rights to a much-expanded BASIC which was released as Data General Business Basic. This added powerful database functionality and largely replaced Extended BASIC on DG platforms.

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Article summary

Data General Extended BASIC, also widely known as Nova Extended BASIC, was a BASIC programming language interpreter for the Data General Nova series minicomputers. It was based on the seminal Dartmouth BASIC, including the Fifth Edition's string variables and powerful commands for matrix manipulation. In contrast to the compile-and-go Dartmouth BASIC, Extended BASIC was an interpreter. To Dartmouth's simple string manipulation system, Extended BASIC added array slicing, which was common on BASICs of the era after its introduction in HP Time-Shared BASIC. It became common in 1980s era microcomputers that did not use Microsoft BASIC, like Sinclair BASIC, Atari BASIC and others. This contrasts with the Microsoft style which uses string functions like , and thus makes porting string code to other dialects somewhat difficult. Data General later purchased rights to a much-expanded BASIC which was released as Data General Business Basic. This added powerful database functionality and largely replaced Extended BASIC on DG platforms.

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  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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