BASIC
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(Added some on the Open Letter to Hobbyists) | (→Altair BASIC and Tiny BASIC, Micro-Soft and Copyleft) | ||
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Even before computers moved into the home, they had become more welcoming and available for a wider variety of uses thanks in part to BASIC. | Even before computers moved into the home, they had become more welcoming and available for a wider variety of uses thanks in part to BASIC. | ||
| − | == Altair BASIC and Tiny BASIC, Micro-Soft and Copyleft == | + | == Altair BASIC and Micro-Soft == |
While time-sharing was a significant and often overlooked revolution in computing, allowing programmers interactive access to the machine and eliminating the highly regulated ritual of submission of punched card stacks, it was only the first revolution in which BASIC played a critical role. The next revolution would change industry and reshape everyday interactions with computing. It was the beginning of the home computer or minicomputer era, and the face that launched a thousand ships was a panel of switches and LEDs on the cover of the January 1975 ''Popular Electronics.'' The image was of the Altair 8800. This $395 machine ($495 assembled) was described consistently there and throughout the magazine as a "minicomputer," rather than a "microcomputer." Nevertheless, the article about this device describes the many virtues of a useful computer for individuals and the headline of the editorial on page 4 clearly proclaims "THE HOME COMPUTER IS HERE!" | While time-sharing was a significant and often overlooked revolution in computing, allowing programmers interactive access to the machine and eliminating the highly regulated ritual of submission of punched card stacks, it was only the first revolution in which BASIC played a critical role. The next revolution would change industry and reshape everyday interactions with computing. It was the beginning of the home computer or minicomputer era, and the face that launched a thousand ships was a panel of switches and LEDs on the cover of the January 1975 ''Popular Electronics.'' The image was of the Altair 8800. This $395 machine ($495 assembled) was described consistently there and throughout the magazine as a "minicomputer," rather than a "microcomputer." Nevertheless, the article about this device describes the many virtues of a useful computer for individuals and the headline of the editorial on page 4 clearly proclaims "THE HOME COMPUTER IS HERE!" | ||
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By 1975, Gates was at Harvard University and he and Allen were ready to envision a project with broader reach. They devised the idea of writing BASIC for the Altair and contacted Ed Roberts' company MITS to ask if they would be interested in a BASIC for their system. As with their Traf-O-Data system, they programmed on a university's computer system using a simulator. What they were programming at this point was, of course, a modified and minimized version of the original 1964 BASIC. Given how often the success of personal computing software is attributed to entreprenurial and business advances, it's remarkable that Microsoft's first product was developed using Harvard's computer and by implementing Dartmouth's programming language. | By 1975, Gates was at Harvard University and he and Allen were ready to envision a project with broader reach. They devised the idea of writing BASIC for the Altair and contacted Ed Roberts' company MITS to ask if they would be interested in a BASIC for their system. As with their Traf-O-Data system, they programmed on a university's computer system using a simulator. What they were programming at this point was, of course, a modified and minimized version of the original 1964 BASIC. Given how often the success of personal computing software is attributed to entreprenurial and business advances, it's remarkable that Microsoft's first product was developed using Harvard's computer and by implementing Dartmouth's programming language. | ||
| − | [Early history of MS Altair BASIC] | + | Gates and Allen were successful in fitting their BASIC interpreter into an austere 4KB and leaving some room for a BASIC program. They turned to a time-sharing Allen flew to visit MITS in Albuquerque, taking the program on paper tape. The demo was a success and was licensed by MITS; Gates and Allen moved to New Mexico to create new versions of BASIC for the Altair and to maintain the original code. |
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. In a predominantly one-sided market, such as a swap meet where people arrive with comics to trade, there is only one class of participant, a person interested in exchanging goods with other people. A classic land-line telephone company is also in a one-sided market, since every customer is more or less the same sort of participant, one who wants to make and receive calls. On the other hand, a credit card company has two different classes of customer: merchants, who receive payments and need terminals, and cardholders, who have a line of credit and who make purchases. | 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. In a predominantly one-sided market, such as a swap meet where people arrive with comics to trade, there is only one class of participant, a person interested in exchanging goods with other people. A classic land-line telephone company is also in a one-sided market, since every customer is more or less the same sort of participant, one who wants to make and receive calls. On the other hand, a credit card company has two different classes of customer: merchants, who receive payments and need terminals, and cardholders, who have a line of credit and who make purchases. | ||
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Microsoft's Windows is one example of a two-sided platform. On one side, computers seemed to need an operating system and desktop environment to function. This leads hardware manufacturers such as Dell to purchase licenses to Windows and to include the software with their systems. 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 has a network effect that is positive for Microsoft: it encourages users to stay with Windows. | Microsoft's Windows is one example of a two-sided platform. On one side, computers seemed to need an operating system and desktop environment to function. This leads hardware manufacturers such as Dell to purchase licenses to Windows and to include the software with their systems. 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 has a network effect that is positive for Microsoft: it encourages users to stay with Windows. | ||
| − | Of course, Windows was not the first two-sided platform, nor even Microsoft's first. By retaining the rights to what IBM called PC-DOS, Microsoft had previously been able to license MS-DOS to other companies, much as they would later sell OEM copies of Windows to them. And before that, there are continuities with the company's first product line, Microsoft BASIC. BASIC was a programming language, not an operating system, but the presence of BASIC allowed for programs to be written on a computer and sometimes sold. It was the closest thing to an operating system that the Altair 8800 had, providing a layer of abstraction above machine language. Computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s needed BASIC on them seem full-featured and to provide an easier programming interface, so different computer manufacturers were eager to license the language from Microsoft. At Gates's and Allen's company, the success of BASIC and the essential business plan used with that family of software products helped to develop the later success of MS-DOS and Windows. | + | Of course, Windows was not the first two-sided platform, nor even Microsoft's first. By retaining the rights to what IBM called PC-DOS, Microsoft had previously been able to license MS-DOS to other companies, much as they would later sell OEM copies of Windows to them. And before that, there are continuities with the company's first product line, Microsoft BASIC. BASIC was a programming language, not an operating system, but the presence of BASIC allowed for programs to be written on a computer and sometimes sold. There were two sides to BASIC: The computer companies, beginning with MITS, who wanted it on their machines and the computer hobbyists who wanted to write BASIC programs. At Gates and Allen's company, the success of BASIC and the essential business plan used with that family of software products helped to develop the later success of MS-DOS and Windows. |
| − | [Specification of and development of Tiny BASIC] | + | == Tiny BASIC and Copyleft == |
== The Ethic vs. The Corporation == | == The Ethic vs. The Corporation == | ||
