I got to re-appreciate BASIC when evaluating options for teaching 11-year-old kids a bit how to program (in a single session).<p>People recommended Scratch etc. but I felt talking about programs was important also, which is easier when you write textual statements. At some point, I briefly considered using an emulated BASIC due to the simplicity and built in graphic, but I ended up using Python together with the pyturtle library for LOGO-like graphics, because the main exercise was to let kids draw a house on paper and then ask them to generate the drawing commands (also first on paper). Using Python has the advantage that nothing they learned was "wasted" or "academic use only" - you can immediately build on or monetize Python knowledge.<p>Interpreted BASIC certainly is a development forward from compiled FORTRAN from a didactic point of view.