Search Result for "basic":
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (2)

1. a popular programming language that is relatively easy to learn; an acronym for beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code; no longer in general use;

2. (usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is constant;
[syn: basic, staple]


ADJECTIVE (4)

1. pertaining to or constituting a base or basis;
- Example: "a basic fact"
- Example: "the basic ingredients"
- Example: "basic changes in public opinion occur because of changes in priorities"

2. reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality;
- Example: "a basic story line"
- Example: "a canonical syllable pattern"
[syn: basic, canonic, canonical]

3. serving as a base or starting point;
- Example: "a basic course in Russian"
- Example: "basic training for raw recruits"
- Example: "a set of basic tools"
- Example: "an introductory art course"
[syn: basic, introductory]

4. of or denoting or of the nature of or containing a base; 



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Basic \Ba"sic\, a.
   1. (Chem.)
      (a) Relating to a base; performing the office of a base in
          a salt.
      (b) Having the base in excess, or the amount of the base
          atomically greater than that of the acid, or exceeding
          in proportion that of the related neutral salt.
      (c) Apparently alkaline, as certain normal salts which
          exhibit alkaline reactions with test paper.
          [1913 Webster]

   2. (Min.) Said of crystalline rocks which contain a
      relatively low percentage of silica, as basalt.
      [1913 Webster]

   Basic salt (Chem.), a salt formed from a base or hydroxide
      by the partial replacement of its hydrogen by a negative
      or acid element or radical.
      [1913 Webster]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

BASIC \BASIC\ n.
   1. (Computers) [Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Iruction C.]
      an artificial computer language with a relatively
      simplified instruction set.

   Note: Writing a program in BASIC or other higher computer
         languages is simpler than writing in assembly language.
         See also programming language, FORTRAN.
         [PJC]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

higher programming language \higher programming language\ n.
   (Computers)
   A computer programming language with an instruction set
   allowing one instruction to code for several assembly
   language instructions.

   Note: The aggregation of several assembly-language
         instructions into one instruction allows much greater
         efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs
         are now written in some higher programming language,
         such as BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++,
         PROLOG, or JAVA.
         [PJC]


Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003):

BASIC
 /bay'.sic/, n.

   A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's
   experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many
   years was the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers. Edsger
   W. Dijkstra observed in Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal
   Perspective that "It is practically impossible to teach good
   programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC:
   as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of
   regeneration." This is another case (like Pascal) of the cascading
   lossage that happens when a language deliberately designed as an
   educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can write short
   BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily; writing
   anything longer (a) is very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits
   that will make it harder to use more powerful languages well. This
   wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so
common
   on low-end micros in the 1980s. As it is, it probably ruined tens of
   thousands of potential wizards.

   [1995: Some languages called "BASIC" aren't quite this nasty any
more,
   having acquired Pascal- and C-like procedures and control structures
   and shed their line numbers. --ESR]

   BASIC stands for "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code".
   Earlier versions of this entry claiming this was a later backronym
   were incorrect.



V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2006):

BASIC
       Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code



Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

106 Moby Thesaurus words for "basic":
   ab ovo, aboriginal, acid, alkali, austere, bare, basal, basilar,
   bedrock, biochemical, bottom, capital, central, chaste, chemical,
   chemicobiological, chemicoengineering, chemicomineralogical,
   chemicophysical, chemurgic, chief, constituent, constitutive,
   copolymeric, copolymerous, crucial, dimeric, dimerous,
   electrochemical, element, elemental, elementary, embryonic,
   essential, focal, foundational, fundamental, generative, genetic,
   germinal, gut, heteromerous, homely, homespun, homogeneous,
   in embryo, in ovo, indispensable, indivisible, irreducible,
   isomerous, key, life-and-death, life-or-death, macrochemical, main,
   material, mere, metameric, monolithic, monomerous, nonacid,
   of a piece, of the essence, of vital importance, original,
   part and parcel, photochemical, physicochemical, phytochemical,
   plain, polymeric, pregnant, primal, primary, prime, primeval,
   primitive, primordial, principal, pristine, protogenic, pure,
   pure and simple, radical, radiochemical, root, rudiment,
   rudimentary, seminal, severe, simon-pure, simple, single, spare,
   stark, substantial, substantive, thermochemical, unadorned,
   uncluttered, underlying, undifferenced, undifferentiated, uniform,
   vital