Ric Moore wrote:
On Thu, 2008-04-03 at 06:59 +1030, Tim wrote:
On Wed, 2008-04-02 at 09:31 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
Microsoft's entry into the personal computer market was by supplying
a version of BASIC that for several operating systems.
And wasn't it awful... I know BASIC's sneered upon, as there are plenty
of better things, but BASIC was a simple starting position for a lot of
people. It was also the only system available for a lot of home
personal computing, for a long time. Though, it typically was a very
feature limited interpreter. We had it on a Data General mainframe,
amongst other languages, and that went in the opposite direction - very
featured, and gave you very verbose and lengthy error reports about your
syntax errors.
Many years ago I can remember tinkering around with Microsoft's BASIC on
the Amiga, since it was the only programming language I had to play with
on it, at the time. And actually managing to make a small relational
database with it, even though it hardly has the features that you need
for something like that. It wasn't anything really complex though, just
interrelated databases of services, clients, quotes, and the ability to
turn a quote into an invoice.
cp/m had all kinda sort and list commands. I'm just not sure which would
have been better, to be under the evil domination of Digital or
Microsoft. <grins> cp/m ][ was pretty nice, though. It did pretty much
whatever I wanted it to do. Ric
Hey, be nice! First off, remember Gary Kildall's company was Digital
Research, Inc.--NOT Digital Equipment Corp. (at the time chaired by
Ken Olson).
I worked for DRI on CP/M and MP/M. There were some nomenclature and UI
similarities between DEC's RT-11 or RSTS and CP/M, but they were NOT the
same company--not by a long shot. They were even on different coasts!
IBM went with Microsoft because they arrived for a meeting with Gary,
but he was out flying his airplane and missed it. IBM got ticked off
and called Microsoft. We've never been sure if IBM was a day early
(as Gary always claimed) or Gary screwed up his calendar. Either one is
as likely as the other (IBM can be petulant and Gary could be very
scatterbrained at times).
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