The author takes a nostalgic trip back to 1981, recalling a friend with an Apple II+ and programming lessons with “Mrs. Cathy.” Their interest in reverse engineering the Lemonade Stand game led to an attempt to maximize profit through Python code, highlighting the significant increase in computational speed over the years. Playing the game online alongside the Python script revealed unexpected modifications that affected the optimal strategy calculation. A Python remake of the original Applesoft BASIC code unveiled an interesting discovery related to undeclared variables in BASIC programming. The post reflects on a unique feature of Applesoft BASIC where variables are automatically assigned a value of zero if encountered in a formula before being assigned a value. This surprising behavior differed from other programming languages and provided an intriguing insight into the history of programming practices.
https://possiblywrong.wordpress.com/2024/03/12/lemonade-stand/