BASIC
From Maze
(Difference between revisions)
(→Line Numbers and Colons: BASIC's Responses to Changing Hardware(sidebar)) | (More info and revision of graph on Gates, Allen, Davidoff, Weiland at the end) | ||
| Line 170: | Line 170: | ||
The features of BASIC that are seen in 10 PRINT and are fairly specific to the Commodore 64 version are seen in the specifics of RND, discussed in the Randomness chapter, and in the character set that CHR$ refers to, discussed in the Commodore 64 chapter. | The features of BASIC that are seen in 10 PRINT and are fairly specific to the Commodore 64 version are seen in the specifics of RND, discussed in the Randomness chapter, and in the character set that CHR$ refers to, discussed in the Commodore 64 chapter. | ||
| − | A few notes on the creators of Commodore 64 BASIC: Bill Gates's career trajectory is, of course, well-known. It is indeed the case that one of the programmers who wrote Commodore 64 BASIC became the richest person in the world. The other programmer, Richard Weiland, was a grade-school classmate of Gates of Allen who joined Microsoft when the company was based in Albuquerque. His contributions at Microsoft and beyond are not at all well-known, and Weiland did not seek acclaim for them. He worked for Microsoft until 1988 and devoted much of his time and money from then until his death in 2006 to philanthropy. He supported the Pride Foundation (with the largest-ever donation to LBGT rights), Stanford University (with the largest donation that university had ever received) and also gave to the Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy (Heim). | + | A few notes on the creators of Commodore 64 BASIC: Bill Gates's career trajectory is, of course, well-known. It is indeed the case that one of the programmers who wrote Commodore 64 BASIC became the richest person in the world. Paul Allen is not far behind in wealth; he left full-time work at Microsoft in 1982. Gates are Allen are notable philanthropists today. The other coder who contributed to the original Altair BASIC, Monte Davidoff, did not strike it nearly as rich but, according to an interview, was still active as a programmer in 2001. Davidoff was then running Linux and preferred to program in Python (Orlowski). |
| + | |||
| + | The programmer of Microsoft's 6502 BASIC, Richard Weiland, was a grade-school classmate of Gates of Allen who joined Microsoft when the company was based in Albuquerque. He worked for Microsoft until 1988 and devoted much of his time and money from then until his death in 2006 to philanthropy. He supported the Pride Foundation (with the largest-ever donation to LBGT rights), Stanford University (with the largest donation that university had ever received) and also gave to the Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy (Heim). | ||
== Circulating Programs in Print == | == Circulating Programs in Print == | ||
