It is odd how little is known of PickBasic. There is a lot of mythology surrounding it. It is true that it is a very dangerous tool to give to a disparate programming team. When you consider that this language goes back to the 60's, there have been many such programming teams.

Dangerous languages are ones which allow the less well-directed programmer to succeed without really trying. At least if the solution to the real-world problem is the only measure of success. I love dangerous languages.

Things I like about PickBasic are -

* Abstraction - a variable is a variable. An address with a length. No more, no less. The name you choose for it is the variable.
* Abstraction - a variable is singular or plural (MultiValue).
** The value of "Variable.Name" is the same as "Variable.Name<1>" if "Variable.Name" is singular. "Variable.Name" is just a reference to an address, it could contain the values of many individual items.
* Abstraction - a variable has no data type.
* Scope - A variable has scope within the source row. This is WysiwygScope.
* Completeness - the database is integrated into the language.
* The database - despite the mythology, encourages design closer to the application domain.

My favourite flavour of Pick Basic is called Basic+ (DEC's BasicPlus is the next best basic) in OpenInsight http://www.revelation.com. Another flavour I like is Jbase http://www.jbase.com.
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CategoryProgrammingLanguage