Birth of BASIC

[Richly]

Very interesting documentary with Kurtz and Dartmouth Alumni describing the birth of BASIC at Dartmouth and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=birth+of+basic+youtube&view=detail&mid=40DBD596A1B3D34434D440DBD596A1B3D34434D4&FORM=VIRE

One thing that really comes across in the video is how BASIC really democratised programming and made it available to the masses.

BASIC was not just for math, science and computer science graduates - it opened to world of programming to all.

Today, there is a renewed emphasis on trying to get more people and from all backrounds and abilities to learn to code; and so BASIC, it would seem, should be more relevant than ever.

[ScriptBasic]

Thanks for the link!

A great story about BASIC from the folks that wrote it.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Great video, Richey, thanks a lot!

Well, children rarely follow the paths prescribed by their parents, don't they?


(On a side note, Kemeny (pronounced "`Keh-men'" with a soft "n'" at the end as "gn" in French "montagne") was a 100%/24-carat/sterling Hungarian ("Magyar", pronounced "`Ma-d'ar" with a soft "d'" as in Spanish "diablo"). Seen Kemeny -- seen the entire Magyar nation. And oh, "sputnik" was in fact "`spoot-nik" as in "book", rather than "`spat-nik" as in "but" or "gotta". )

[B+]

It's funny you two don't know where to start, you start by forgetting about making money.

Well, you probably did know that, just didn't want to profess it.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

WAT?

[B+]

Nutty idea?

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Honestly, I'm seeing no relation whatsoever between your utterance and the topic it's been posted under... Or is my English really that hopeless?

[B+]

Your English is outstanding, I am a little goofy...

[Mike Lobanovsky]

That's what I expected. Mark, you're using the wrong topic to post in. That's called "thread hijacking", "flooding", you name it.

[B+]

I am hoping for a rebirth of that spirit that is the topic of this thread.

Am I in the wrong place?

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Huh?

Do you really think your hopes and spirit were what Kemeny and Co. were feeding themselves on all that time? Do you really believe that all the countless millions Linus Torvalds owns came from his beloved granddaddy? Do you really think the native Win/Lin layer your Win 10 now has, came from Canonical as charity in the spirit of FSF propaganda?

No?

Then why would you think that two grown up men with a combined life experience on both sides of the ocean well in excess of a century wouldn't know how to squeeze a coupla bucks out of an elementary situation a tiny business like PB Inc. appeared in?

Now why would you ever think that each of us spat out anything else but a carefully weighted dose of info just to probe public opinion at a place least of all suitable for serious polling?

Mark, have you registered with the PowerBASIC forum yet? I'm dying to know your real name and have a chance to look in your face.

[B+]

OK

[Richly]

Thanks for the link!

A great story about BASIC from the folks that wrote it.

Great video, Richey, thanks a lot!

You're both very welcome. I found the video to be very inspirational and to represent the best of human nature.

[ScriptBasic]

I liked the part about holding the title of seeing the first BASIC program run. It's sort of like being the first to step on the moon.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

John, I still own a functional PC Junior with two 720KB floppy disk drives where A: was for the system diskette, and B:, for user output. And believe it or not, the ICU unit in Minsk (that's the capital of Belarus) Children's Cardiac Surgery Center still uses my programs written in Basica on this PC for their monthly, quarterly and annual accounting of, and reports on, their flow of funds and inventories!

Of course they do use much more advanced machinery and modern SW for their immediate professional needs but still... Anyway I guess I wouldn't be able to find a couple of diskettes usable in that weird format around any more, even in case of emergency.