Back in the 80s, "Program in BASIC" didn't exist (well, maybe). You had "Program BASIC for the Atari 400/800" or "Learn BASIC for the Commodore-64". I even remember books to learn C for specific platforms like the PC or Amiga.
Today, a generic book on <programming language> will have to spend a significant portion of time explaining platform specifics. Granted, this is really only three platforms these days (Windows, Mac and Linux) but they are significantly different to be a pain to have to explain in a general purpose book.
Today, a generic book on <programming language> will have to spend a significant portion of time explaining platform specifics. Granted, this is really only three platforms these days (Windows, Mac and Linux) but they are significantly different to be a pain to have to explain in a general purpose book.