REPORTS The Case for Extending BASIC as an Educational ProgrAmming Language Thomas A. Dwyer Department of Computer Science University of Pittsburgh There is only one way to make something better, and that is to change it. It is important however, not to confuse the word "change" with the word On the contrary, intelligent and useful change is characterized "destroy." at least as much by concern for preserving the good aspects of that being changed, as it is with revision. It is often preferable, in fact, to view change as an augmentation rather than a drastic re-shuffling of the original system. I believe that these general observations provide the key to answering the question "whither hence" that faces the educational community today when considering computer languages for interactive computing. The question is an important one, for there is little doubt that the use of such computing, especially in community colleges and secondary schools, is about to rise considerably. Now is a particularly appropriate time to ask what should be preserved and what should be improved in educational software. One of the most important contributions that the widespread use of BASIC In has made to educational computing is the commonality
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