A minor nit:

Wirt Atmar wrote:

>BASIC doesn't initialize
>much when it first comes up, and it certainly doesn't initialize numeric
>values.

This isn't quite correct for the case of the BASIC interpreter, which is
what Ted was running. BASIC initializes integer values to -32768 and
floating-point values to a particular bit pattern (don't recall which at
the moment). These values are regarded as "undefined", and the
interpreter will issue an error message if a variable has one of these
values.

Compiled BASIC/V code has no such protection, but since the model is
"test in the interpreter", it's assumed that all paths resulting in an
uninitialized variable have been caught by the time the program gets
compiled.

-- Bruce


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