BASIC

Dartmouth's own time-sharing system, DTSS, and the versions of BASIC that ran on it served almost all of the students at that college - Kemeny stated in 1971 that 90% of seven classes of freshmen had received computer training. Access to Dartmouth's system extended to many other campuses, and it was not the only time-sharing system with BASIC. Before the microcomputer revolution, other college and university students were taking required courses in computing using BASIC - at NYU's business school, for instance. Even before the arrival of home computers with built-in BASIC, the language had extensive, if not pervasive, influence. And even before the microcomputer era and the full toppling of BASIC's Tower of Babel, the permissive attitude of Kemeny and Kurtz had led to many different implementations of BASIC for different systems. Writing in 1975, one author commented: "BASIC systems differ among themselves in much the same way that the English langauge as we know it differs among the English-speaking nations around the globe." (Mullish p. 6)

Dartmouth's own time-sharing system, DTSS, and the versions of BASIC that ran on it served almost all of the students at that college - Kemeny stated in 1971 that 90% of seven classes of freshmen had received computer training. Access to Dartmouth's system extended to many other campuses, and it was not the only time-sharing system with BASIC. Before the microcomputer revolution, other college and university students were taking required courses in computing using BASIC - at NYU's business school, for instance. Even before the arrival of home computers with built-in BASIC, the language had extensive, if not pervasive, influence. And even before the microcomputer era and the full toppling of BASIC's Tower of Babel, the permissive attitude of Kemeny and Kurtz had led to many different implementations of BASIC for different systems. Writing in 1975, one author commented: "BASIC systems differ among themselves in much the same way that the English langauge as we know it differs among the English-speaking nations around the globe." (Mullish p. 6)

In the book ''Invisible Engines,'' three authors develop of a theory of how software platforms can be two-sided (or multi-sided) in the sense of two-sided markets, where, for instance, both buyers and sellers must come together for profits to be made. Microsoft's Windows operating system is one example of a two-sided platform. On one side, computers need an operating system to function, so hardware manufactuers such as Dell purchase licenses to Windows and pass along the costs to consumers. On the other side, computers are only valuable if there are applications written for them. Microsoft writes some of the applications for Windows, but third-party developers write many. The abundance of software encourages users to stay with Windows.

In the book ''Invisible Engines,'' three authors develop of a theory of how software platforms can be two-sided (or multi-sided) in the sense of two-sided markets, where, for instance, both buyers and sellers must come together for profits to be made. Microsoft's Windows operating system is one example of a two-sided platform. On one side, computers need an operating system to function, so hardware manufactuers such as Dell purchase licenses to Windows and pass along the costs to consumers. On the other side, computers are only valuable if there are applications written for them. Microsoft writes some of the applications for Windows, but third-party developers write many. The abundance of software encourages users to stay with Windows.