What Was Your First Programming Language?

[Les Bell]

(07-07-2015 02:26 PM)Bill (Smithville NJ) Wrote:  What are some of the other obscure Programming Languages?

OK - you asked for it! The tiniest language I ever used is PILOT, an acronym for Programmed Inquiry Learning and Teaching. It was intended for simple computer-aided instruction and testing on 1970's microcomputers, and if I recall correctly, the smallest implementation of a PILOT interpreter required only 256 bytes. I ought to go and check early issues of Dr. Dobbs Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia, or Running Light Without OverByte, as it might well have been published there.

All the statement keywords of PILOT were a single letter, e.g. T for "type", A: for "accept" (I think - accept input) and M for "match". To get the full flavour, here the classic number guessing game, implemented in Starkweather PILOT:

Code:


*START
T:
T:Hi there, what's your name?
A:$NAME
T:OK, $NAME, do you want to play a guessing game?
A:
M:Y,y,Yes,yes,OK
JY: *DOIT
J:*END
*DOIT C:#N = RND(99)
T:I'm thinking of a number
*L1: T:What's your guess?
A:#G
T(G>N):Too high!
T(G<N):Too low!
J(G<>N):*L1
T:You got it!
:Want to play again?
A:
M: Y,y,Yes,yes,OK, Why not
JM: *DOIT
*END T:OK, Bye for now.
E:

There was also an implementation of PILOT by Apple for the Apple ][, but it required UCSD Pascal to run.