BASIC's question mark and PRINT

[Bruce Ray]

Another data point: Data General BASIC in 1969 used '?' as equivalent to the 
PRINT command.

Another data point: this was before Microsoft BASIC.


Bruce Ray

...preserving the Data General legacy:  www.NovasAreForever.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Battle" <frustum at pacbell.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" 
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: BASIC's question mark and PRINT


> tim lindner wrote:
>> In BASIC, where did the short cut of '?' for PRINT originate?
>>
>> After following a discussion on the CoCo list I thought I'd ask here.
>>
>
> Here are some bounds and data points.
>
> The Dartmouth BASIC specification does not have ? as an abbrevation (circa 
> 1964).
>
> I think all versions of Microsoft BASIC have this shortcut (circa 1975).
>
> Palo Alto Tiny BASIC (li chen wang) didn't use this convention -- instead 
> it used "P.".
>
> Wang BASIC (circa 1972) didn't use this convention.
>
> From what I can tell, DEC BASIC didn't use this abbreviation.
>