BASIC

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In 1962, change was sweeping through Dartmouth. Late that year, in an article that declared the isolated college was coming "out of the woods," ''Time'' noted that the school had built a major new arts center and that John Kemeny, who had made full professor at age 27, had built "the best college math department in the country." Also in 1962, Kemeny and his colleague Thomas Kurtz had begun developing a time-sharing computer system and a new programming language to be used by all students at Dartmouth -- not just those studying math, science, or engineering. Kemeny and Kurtz aimed for nothing less than a computing revolution, radically increasing access to computers and to computer programming. "While the availability of FORTRAN extended computer usage from a handful of experts to thousands of scientific users," Kemeny wrote, "we at Dartmouth envisaged the possibility of millions of people writing their own computer programs" (Kemeny 30).

−

To reach millions, Kemeny and Kurtz would clearly have to lower the existing barriers to programming, barriers which were related not only to the esoterics of programming languages but also to the physical limits and material nature of computing at the time. The two began working with a team of undergraduates to develop the Dartmouth Timesharing System, and with it the BASIC programming language. They considered developing a subset of FORTRAN or Algol, but found these options unsuitable (''Masterminds of Programming'' 79). As Kurtz told an interviewer, "we wanted ... to get away from the requirements that punched cards imposed on users, which was that things had to be on certain columns on the card" (''Masterminds of Programming'' 81). They saw the value of an interactive time-sharing system for allowing users to quickly correct minor errors rather than coming back 24 hours later with a new stack of punched cards for their next scheduled batch job. They also relaxed some of the specific requirements that were tied to using keypunch machines and cards. Oddly enough, BASIC was so relaxed that spaces between tokens were optional in Dartmouth's versions of the language. Spaces were ignored, as Kurtz explains, because "some people, especially faculty members, couldn't type very well" (''MoP'' 81). This aspect of Dartmouth BASIC was carried over onto the Commodore 64, which, as mentioned in the introduction, allowed for even more compact versions of programs, including 10 PRINT.

+

To reach millions, Kemeny and Kurtz would have to lower the existing barriers to programming, barriers which were related not only to the esoterics of programming languages, but also to the physical limits and material nature of computing at the time. The two began working with a team of undergraduates to develop the Dartmouth Timesharing System and, with it, the BASIC programming language. They considered developing a subset of FORTRAN or Algol, but found these options unsuitable (''Masterminds of Programming'' 79). As Kurtz told an interviewer, "we wanted ... to get away from the requirements that punched cards imposed on users, which was that things had to be on certain columns on the card" (''Masterminds of Programming'' 81). They saw the value of an interactive, time-sharing system for allowing users to correct minor errors quickly rather than coming back 24 hours later with a new stack of punched cards for their next scheduled batch job. They also relaxed some of the specific requirements that were tied to using keypunch machines and cards. Oddly enough, BASIC was so relaxed that spaces between tokens were optional in Dartmouth's versions of the language. Spaces were ignored, as Kurtz explains, because "some people, especially faculty members, couldn't type very well" (''MoP'' 81). This aspect of Dartmouth BASIC was carried over onto the Commodore 64, which, as mentioned in the introduction, allowed for even more compact versions of programs, including 10 PRINT.

BASIC was designed in other ways to help new programmers, with "error messages that were clear and friendly" and default options that would satisfy most users' needs (9). "If the expert needs something fancier," Kemeny and Kurtz declared, "let the expert do the extra work!" (11). Kemeny and Kurtz envisioned BASIC as a true high-level language, allowing programmers to operate without any detailed knowledge of the specific hardware they were using. The initial idea, at least, was that programmers need only pay attention to BASIC instead of the computer that BASIC happened to be running on.

−

DTSS and the versions of BASIC that ran on it served almost all of the students at Dartmouth; by 1971, 90 percent of the seven most recent classes of freshmen had received computer training. Dartmouth extended access to its system to other campuses, and it also inspired the creation of other time-sharing systems with BASIC. By 1965, General Electric -- on whose computers DTSS and the original BASIC ran -- was offering a commercial time-sharing service that included BASIC (Waldrop 292). Well before the microcomputer revolution of the late seventies, 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 was pervasive. The permissive attitude of Kemeny and Kurtz led to many different implementations of BASIC for different systems. Writing in 1975, one observer noted that "BASIC systems differ among themselves in much the same way that the English language as we know it differs among the English-speaking nations around the globe" (Mullish 6). However, the very permissiveness that led to BASIC's widespread adoption and adaptation ironically meant that the language wasn't as independent of particular hardware as Kemeny and Kurtz had planned.

+

DTSS and the versions of BASIC that ran on it served almost all of the students at Dartmouth; by 1971, 90 percent of the seven most recent classes of freshmen had received computer training. Dartmouth extended access to its system to other campuses, and it also inspired the creation of other time-sharing systems with BASIC. By 1965, General Electric, on whose computers DTSS and the original BASIC ran, was offering a commercial time-sharing service that included BASIC (Waldrop 292). Well before the microcomputer revolution of the late seventies, 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 was pervasive. The permissive attitude of Kemeny and Kurtz led to many different implementations of BASIC for different systems. Writing in 1975, one observer noted that "BASIC systems differ among themselves in much the same way that the English language as we know it differs among the English-speaking nations around the globe" (Mullish 6). However, the very permissiveness that led to BASIC's widespread adoption and adaptation ironically meant that the language wasn't as independent of particular hardware as Kemeny and Kurtz had planned.

In addition to BASIC and the DTSS, there is yet another legacy from Dartmouth that has powerfully swayed the direction of modern computing. It is simply this: the almost evangelical mission to foster a more productive and creative relationship to computing. In his 1972 book ''Man and the Computer,'' Kemeny defends programming and playing games and other "recreational" uses of the computer as important, writing that such activities are relaxing and help people to overcome their fear of computers (35). Kemeny also describes some of the context in which BASIC programming was done at Dartmouth: "The computation center is run in a manner analogous to Dartmouth's million-volume open-stack library. Just as any student may go in and browse the library or check out any book he wishes without asking for permission or explaining why he wants that particular book, he may use the computation center without asking permission or explaining why he is running a particular program" (Kemeny 33). Computers were for everyone. BASIC was the embodiment of this openness, which allowed for programs with no obvious military, business, or scientific purpose -- programs such as 10 PRINT -- to come about.

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 In 1962, change was sweeping through Dartmouth. Late that year, in an article that declared the isolated college was coming "out of the woods," ''Time'' noted that the school had built a major new arts center and that John Kemeny, who had made full professor at age 27, had built "the best college math department in the country." Also in 1962, Kemeny and his colleague Thomas Kurtz had begun developing a time-sharing computer system and a new programming language to be used by all students at Dartmouth -- not just those studying math, science, or engineering. Kemeny and Kurtz aimed for nothing less than a computing revolution, radically increasing access to computers and to computer programming. "While the availability of FORTRAN extended computer usage from a handful of experts to thousands of scientific users," Kemeny wrote, "we at Dartmouth envisaged the possibility of millions of people writing their own computer programs" (Kemeny 30).
-To reach millions, Kemeny and Kurtz would clearly have to lower the existing barriers to programming, barriers which were related not only to the esoterics of programming languages but also to the physical limits and material nature of computing at the time. The two began working with a team of undergraduates to develop the Dartmouth Timesharing System, and with it the BASIC programming language. They considered developing a subset of FORTRAN or Algol, but found these options unsuitable (''Masterminds of Programming'' 79). As Kurtz told an interviewer, "we wanted ... to get away from the requirements that punched cards imposed on users, which was that things had to be on certain columns on the card" (''Masterminds of Programming'' 81). They saw the value of an interactive time-sharing system for allowing users to quickly correct minor errors rather than coming back 24 hours later with a new stack of punched cards for their next scheduled batch job. They also relaxed some of the specific requirements that were tied to using keypunch machines and cards. Oddly enough, BASIC was so relaxed that spaces between tokens were optional in Dartmouth's versions of the language. Spaces were ignored, as Kurtz explains, because "some people, especially faculty members, couldn't type very well" (''MoP'' 81). This aspect of Dartmouth BASIC was carried over onto the Commodore 64, which, as mentioned in the introduction, allowed for even more compact versions of programs, including 10 PRINT.
+To reach millions, Kemeny and Kurtz would have to lower the existing barriers to programming, barriers which were related not only to the esoterics of programming languages, but also to the physical limits and material nature of computing at the time. The two began working with a team of undergraduates to develop the Dartmouth Timesharing System and, with it, the BASIC programming language. They considered developing a subset of FORTRAN or Algol, but found these options unsuitable (''Masterminds of Programming'' 79). As Kurtz told an interviewer, "we wanted ... to get away from the requirements that punched cards imposed on users, which was that things had to be on certain columns on the card" (''Masterminds of Programming'' 81). They saw the value of an interactive, time-sharing system for allowing users to correct minor errors quickly rather than coming back 24 hours later with a new stack of punched cards for their next scheduled batch job. They also relaxed some of the specific requirements that were tied to using keypunch machines and cards. Oddly enough, BASIC was so relaxed that spaces between tokens were optional in Dartmouth's versions of the language. Spaces were ignored, as Kurtz explains, because "some people, especially faculty members, couldn't type very well" (''MoP'' 81). This aspect of Dartmouth BASIC was carried over onto the Commodore 64, which, as mentioned in the introduction, allowed for even more compact versions of programs, including 10 PRINT.
 BASIC was designed in other ways to help new programmers, with "error messages that were clear and friendly" and default options that would satisfy most users' needs (9). "If the expert needs something fancier," Kemeny and Kurtz declared, "let the expert do the extra work!" (11). Kemeny and Kurtz envisioned BASIC as a true high-level language, allowing programmers to operate without any detailed knowledge of the specific hardware they were using. The initial idea, at least, was that programmers need only pay attention to BASIC instead of the computer that BASIC happened to be running on.
-DTSS and the versions of BASIC that ran on it served almost all of the students at Dartmouth; by 1971, 90 percent of the seven most recent classes of freshmen had received computer training. Dartmouth extended access to its system to other campuses, and it also inspired the creation of other time-sharing systems with BASIC. By 1965, General Electric -- on whose computers DTSS and the original BASIC ran -- was offering a commercial time-sharing service that included BASIC (Waldrop 292). Well before the microcomputer revolution of the late seventies, 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 was pervasive. The permissive attitude of Kemeny and Kurtz led to many different implementations of BASIC for different systems. Writing in 1975, one observer noted that "BASIC systems differ among themselves in much the same way that the English language as we know it differs among the English-speaking nations around the globe" (Mullish 6). However, the very permissiveness that led to BASIC's widespread adoption and adaptation ironically meant that the language wasn't as independent of particular hardware as Kemeny and Kurtz had planned.
+DTSS and the versions of BASIC that ran on it served almost all of the students at Dartmouth; by 1971, 90 percent of the seven most recent classes of freshmen had received computer training. Dartmouth extended access to its system to other campuses, and it also inspired the creation of other time-sharing systems with BASIC. By 1965, General Electric, on whose computers DTSS and the original BASIC ran, was offering a commercial time-sharing service that included BASIC (Waldrop 292). Well before the microcomputer revolution of the late seventies, 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 was pervasive. The permissive attitude of Kemeny and Kurtz led to many different implementations of BASIC for different systems. Writing in 1975, one observer noted that "BASIC systems differ among themselves in much the same way that the English language as we know it differs among the English-speaking nations around the globe" (Mullish 6). However, the very permissiveness that led to BASIC's widespread adoption and adaptation ironically meant that the language wasn't as independent of particular hardware as Kemeny and Kurtz had planned.
 In addition to BASIC and the DTSS, there is yet another legacy from Dartmouth that has powerfully swayed the direction of modern computing. It is simply this: the almost evangelical mission to foster a more productive and creative relationship to computing. In his 1972 book ''Man and the Computer,'' Kemeny defends programming and playing games and other "recreational" uses of the computer as important, writing that such activities are relaxing and help people to overcome their fear of computers (35). Kemeny also describes some of the context in which BASIC programming was done at Dartmouth: "The computation center is run in a manner analogous to Dartmouth's million-volume open-stack library. Just as any student may go in and browse the library or check out any book he wishes without asking for permission or explaining why he wants that particular book, he may use the computation center without asking permission or explaining why he is running a particular program" (Kemeny 33). Computers were for everyone. BASIC was the embodiment of this openness, which allowed for programs with no obvious military, business, or scientific purpose -- programs such as 10 PRINT -- to come about.