Looking at Line 5-10 of this #Basic Star Trek listing confused the heck out of me. This listing was written by Li-Chen Wang for use in his own #TinyBasic.

https://archive.org/details/1976-07-peoples-computer-company/page/22/mode/2up?view=theater

Here is the confusing part, expanded out to multiple lines and modern syntax for the benefit of today's readers.

Y=2999
INPUT "DO YOU WANT A DIFFICULT GAME? (Y OR N)",A
IF A=Y THEN Y=999

Without support for string input, how the heck can the program accept "Y or N" from the user?

Answer: In this dialect, INPUT accepts not just numbers, but expressions. Single characters (A-Z) are valid expressions and evaluate to the value in that variable. So in this program, typing "Y" sets A=2999 and typing "N" sets A=N (some uninitialized value). Then the next line checks A=Y (true if user entered "Y") and, if so, sets Y to 999 ("difficult game" value). Else, Y is left at 2999 ("easy game" value).

Li-Chen is absolutely some kind of genius.

#retrocomputing