BASIC
From Maze
(Difference between revisions)
(→CHR$ and the Dollar Sign in BASIC (Sidebar)) | (Added info from Hard Drive on Altair BASIC) | ||
| Line 77: | Line 77: | ||
The two major successful efforts to develop a BASIC interpreter for the Altair are important and intriguing. While this tale of two BASICs doesn't clearly show the best of BASIC and the worst of BASIC, they do show two extremes in software development: one commercial, closely coordinated with hardware manufacturers, and highly tied to licensing and cost structures; the other community-based, non-profit, and "copyleft." The BASICs that led in these directions were Microsoft's Altair BASIC, the official BASIC for the platform, which was licensed to the manufacturer of the system, MITS; and Tiny BASIC, which originated at the People's Computer Company or PCC. The Commodore 64's BASIC is directly descended from Microsoft's Altair BASIC -- it is, although this is not visible on the startup screen, a Microsoft product. At the same time, the 10 PRINT program participated in a context of BASIC sharing and exploration that was strongly influenced by the People's Computer Company. | The two major successful efforts to develop a BASIC interpreter for the Altair are important and intriguing. While this tale of two BASICs doesn't clearly show the best of BASIC and the worst of BASIC, they do show two extremes in software development: one commercial, closely coordinated with hardware manufacturers, and highly tied to licensing and cost structures; the other community-based, non-profit, and "copyleft." The BASICs that led in these directions were Microsoft's Altair BASIC, the official BASIC for the platform, which was licensed to the manufacturer of the system, MITS; and Tiny BASIC, which originated at the People's Computer Company or PCC. The Commodore 64's BASIC is directly descended from Microsoft's Altair BASIC -- it is, although this is not visible on the startup screen, a Microsoft product. At the same time, the 10 PRINT program participated in a context of BASIC sharing and exploration that was strongly influenced by the People's Computer Company. | ||
| − | The story of Microsoft BASIC, and of Microsoft, begins with Paul Allen catching sight of the now-famous ''Popular Electronics,'' reading about the Altair 8800 in it, and showing the article to his friend and business partner Bill Gates. The two had already earned some limited success when Gates was still in high school. Their first venture was called Traf-O-Data and produced hardware and software to count cars. They programmed the Intel 8008 using a simulator running on a Washington State University mainframe. | + | The story of Microsoft BASIC, and of Microsoft, begins with Paul Allen catching sight of the now-famous ''Popular Electronics'' soon after the issue hit the stands, in December 1974. Allen read the Altair 8800 article and raced to showing it his friend and business partner Bill Gates, telling him, "Well here's our opportunity to do something with BASIC." (Wallace & Erikson p. 67) The two had already earned some limited success when Gates was still in high school. Their first venture was called Traf-O-Data and produced hardware and software to count cars. They programmed the Intel 8008 using a simulator running on a Washington State University mainframe. |
| − | 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 they had done when developing their Traf-O-Data system, they initially 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 and to Microsoft in particular, it's remarkable that Microsoft's first product was developed using Harvard's computer and was an implementation of 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 phoned up Ed Roberts at MITS to ask if he would be interested in having their BASIC for his system. Roberts, who had already heard empty offers of Altair BASIC, said he would buy the first version that worked (Wallace & Erikson p. 74). As Gates and Allen had done when developing their Traf-O-Data system, they initially 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 and to Microsoft in particular, it's remarkable that Microsoft's first product was developed using Harvard's computer and was (as Microsoft clearly acknowledged) an implementation of Dartmouth's programming language. |
| − | Gates and Allen were successful in fitting their BASIC interpreter into an austere 4kb. 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. | + | Gates and Allen were successful in fitting their BASIC interpreter into an austere 4 KB -- although there was a third Altair BASIC programmer, too, a sort of legendary fifth Beatle of Microsoft. This was Monte Davidoff, who wrote the floating-point routines. Gates and Allen were discussing how they needed to code these up when Davidoff, a student who was sitting with them at the table, spoke up and said he could write them. After talking it over with him, they had him contribute these. As comments at the beginning of the code declare, "BILL GATES WROTE THE RUNTIME STUFF," which he did over a period of eight weeks at Harvard. Gates told authors years later that this 4 KB BASIC interpreter "was the coolest program I ever wrote." (Wallace & Erikson p. 76-77). |
| + | |||
| + | Allen flew to visit MITS in Albuquerque, taking the program on paper tape. Allen realized during the plane's decent that he did not have a bootloader that would allow the Altair to read the tape, so he wrote on as the plane was landing. Then, he headed to see an Altair for the first time -- all of the work he, Gates, and Davidoff had done was via a simulator. The BASIC demo, of course, was a success and the intepreter 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, and Microsoft was booted and running. | ||
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. | ||
