BASIC

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== Altair BASIC and Micro-Soft ==

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The computing revolution that followed the development of time-sharing would change industry and reshape everyday interactions with computing. It was the beginning of the home computer or minicomputer era. The face that launched a thousand ships was a panel of switches and LEDs on the cover of the January 1975 ''Popular Electronics.'' -- the visage of the Altair 8800. This $395 machine ($495 assembled) was described consistently on the cover and throughout the magazine as a "minicomputer," rather than a "microcomputer." The article about this device also describes the many virtues of a useful computer for individuals and the headline of the editorial on page 4 proclaims "THE HOME COMPUTER IS HERE!" ''Popular Electronics'' was hardly a novelty publication by the time this issue came out; the magazine was founded in 1954 by Ziff-Davis Publications and was a well-known, widely-distributed magazine by 1975. The year did mark an inflection point for home computing and for the magazine, which came to focus increasingly on computing. In November 1982, the magazine would be renamed ''Computers & Electronics.''

+

The computer had already become more welcoming and accessible to a wider range of users thanks to BASIC and the innovations of time-sharing on university and college campuses, but it wasn't until BASIC moved into the home that it became for a time the lingua franca of computing. The computing revolution that followed the development of time-sharing would change industry and reshape everyday interactions with computing. It was the beginning of the home computer or minicomputer era. The face that launched a thousand ships was a panel of switches and LEDs on the cover of the January 1975 ''Popular Electronics.'' -- the visage of the Altair 8800. This $395 machine ($495 assembled) was described consistently on the cover and throughout the magazine as a "minicomputer," rather than a "microcomputer." The article about this device also describes the many virtues of a useful computer for individuals and the headline of the editorial on page 4 proclaims "THE HOME COMPUTER IS HERE!" ''Popular Electronics'' was hardly a novelty publication by the time this issue came out; the magazine was founded in 1954 by Ziff-Davis Publications and was a well-known, widely-distributed magazine by 1975. The year did mark an inflection point for home computing and for the magazine, which came to focus increasingly on computing. In November 1982, the magazine would be renamed ''Computers & Electronics.''

The article describing the Altair 8800 claims that the computer can be used as a "Sophisticated intrusion alarm system," an "Automatic IC tester," an "Autopilot for planes, boats, etc.," a "Time-share computer system," a "Brain for a robot," and a "Printed matter-to-Braille converter for the blind," among other things, noting that "many of these applications can be performed simultaneously." (p. 38) As it happened, even the applications that were within the capabilities of the device were rather difficult to realize since the system, as delivered or assembled, could only be programmed in machine language. Unless one happened to have a Teletype or other terminal lying around, the programming had to be done using the toggle switches on the front panel. From the outset, it was clear to many that the Altair 8800 could really use was a programming language that facilitated experimentation. The ''Popular Electronics'' article actually mentions four programming languages by way of explaining the hardware/software distinction (p. 34); one of these is BASIC, which was the language of most interest to early Altair 8800 users.

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 == Altair BASIC and Micro-Soft ==
-The computing revolution that followed the development of time-sharing would change industry and reshape everyday interactions with computing. It was the beginning of the home computer or minicomputer era. The face that launched a thousand ships was a panel of switches and LEDs on the cover of the January 1975 ''Popular Electronics.'' -- the visage of the Altair 8800. This $395 machine ($495 assembled) was described consistently on the cover and throughout the magazine as a "minicomputer," rather than a "microcomputer." The article about this device also describes the many virtues of a useful computer for individuals and the headline of the editorial on page 4 proclaims "THE HOME COMPUTER IS HERE!" ''Popular Electronics'' was hardly a novelty publication by the time this issue came out; the magazine was founded in 1954 by Ziff-Davis Publications and was a well-known, widely-distributed magazine by 1975. The year did mark an inflection point for home computing and for the magazine, which came to focus increasingly on computing. In November 1982, the magazine would be renamed ''Computers & Electronics.''
+The computer had already become more welcoming and accessible to a wider range of users thanks to BASIC and the innovations of time-sharing on university and college campuses, but it wasn't until BASIC moved into the home that it became for a time the lingua franca of computing. The computing revolution that followed the development of time-sharing would change industry and reshape everyday interactions with computing. It was the beginning of the home computer or minicomputer era. The face that launched a thousand ships was a panel of switches and LEDs on the cover of the January 1975 ''Popular Electronics.'' -- the visage of the Altair 8800. This $395 machine ($495 assembled) was described consistently on the cover and throughout the magazine as a "minicomputer," rather than a "microcomputer." The article about this device also describes the many virtues of a useful computer for individuals and the headline of the editorial on page 4 proclaims "THE HOME COMPUTER IS HERE!" ''Popular Electronics'' was hardly a novelty publication by the time this issue came out; the magazine was founded in 1954 by Ziff-Davis Publications and was a well-known, widely-distributed magazine by 1975. The year did mark an inflection point for home computing and for the magazine, which came to focus increasingly on computing. In November 1982, the magazine would be renamed ''Computers & Electronics.''
 The article describing the Altair 8800 claims that the computer can be used as a "Sophisticated intrusion alarm system," an "Automatic IC tester," an "Autopilot for planes, boats, etc.," a "Time-share computer system," a "Brain for a robot," and a "Printed matter-to-Braille converter for the blind," among other things, noting that "many of these applications can be performed simultaneously." (p. 38) As it happened, even the applications that were within the capabilities of the device were rather difficult to realize since the system, as delivered or assembled, could only be programmed in machine language. Unless one happened to have a Teletype or other terminal lying around, the programming had to be done using the toggle switches on the front panel. From the outset, it was clear to many that the Altair 8800 could really use was a programming language that facilitated experimentation. The ''Popular Electronics'' article actually mentions four programming languages by way of explaining the hardware/software distinction (p. 34); one of these is BASIC, which was the language of most interest to early Altair 8800 users.