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  • bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    BASIC uses (used?) it to declare variables. (I don’t know if earlier languages did.)

    Not that that’s a reason for other languages to copy it.

      • danA
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        1 day ago

        Older variants used DIM for arrays and LET for other variables. DIM was originally called that because it was setting the dimensions of the array.

        In modern BASIC variants, DIM has become a backronym: “declare in memory”.

        • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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          24 hours ago

          In modern BASIC variants, DIM has become a backronym: “declare in memory”.

          TIL. I always thought it was a backronym for declare in (yo) momma.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Even older variants required both a let to declare the variable and a dim to set its size.

          I remember a REDIM command, but I really can’t remember what basic it’s from.

          • danA
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            23 hours ago

            The first programming language I used was Visual Basic (both VBA in Excel, and VB3 then VB6). I think it used redim to resize arrays.