Lesson plan
Wang BASIC
Wang BASIC is a series of BASIC programming languages for computers from Wang Laboratories. The term can be used to refer to the BASIC on any Wang machine, but is mostly associated with the versions on the Wang 2200 minicomputer series of the early 1970s. When these machines were updated to the VP series in 1976, BASIC-2 was introduced and remained the pattern for future machines in the 2200 series. A planned BASIC-3 was never released. Wang offered several models of each version of the 2200 series, differing only in the amount of microcode stored in read-only memory (ROM), and thus the number of commands available in BASIC on that machine. For instance, the B model machines differed from the base-model A by doubling the ROM and using that to store a variety of input/output and file management commands. Wang BASIC closely followed the original Dartmouth BASIC in syntax, but was an interpreter as opposed to a compile-and-go system. A notable feature was that all math used double-precision binary-coded decimal (BCD) format, which was unusual for BASICs of the era. It lacked many features common to later dialects like Microsoft BASIC, but many of these features were added in BASIC-2.
Article summary
Wang BASIC is a series of BASIC programming languages for computers from Wang Laboratories. The term can be used to refer to the BASIC on any Wang machine, but is mostly associated with the versions on the Wang 2200 minicomputer series of the early 1970s. When these machines were updated to the VP series in 1976, BASIC-2 was introduced and remained the pattern for future machines in the 2200 series. A planned BASIC-3 was never released. Wang offered several models of each version of the 2200 series, differing only in the amount of microcode stored in read-only memory (ROM), and thus the number of commands available in BASIC on that machine. For instance, the B model machines differed from the base-model A by doubling the ROM and using that to store a variety of input/output and file management commands. Wang BASIC closely followed the original Dartmouth BASIC in syntax, but was an interpreter as opposed to a compile-and-go system. A notable feature was that all math used double-precision binary-coded decimal (BCD) format, which was unusual for BASICs of the era. It lacked many features common to later dialects like Microsoft BASIC, but many of these features were added in BASIC-2.
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.