Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 16:28:24 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Doug Russell <drussell@saturn-tech.com> Cc: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>, Technical Information <tech_info@threespace.com>, FreeBSD Advocacy <advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: BSD, .Net comments - any reponse to this reasoning? Message-ID: <20010702162824.C4896@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0107011913210.72460-100000@beastie.saturn-tech.com>; from drussell@saturn-tech.com on Sun, Jul 01, 2001 at 04:17:25PM -0600 References: <3B3F9F23.FF02A317@softweyr.com> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0107011913210.72460-100000@beastie.saturn-tech.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Doug Russell said on Jul 1, 2001 at 16:17:25: > > On Sun, 1 Jul 2001, Wes Peters wrote: > > > was. It was well accepted at the time that Microsoft BASIC was what > > we'd now call a "port" of the original PDP-11 (IIRC) BASIC interpreter > > to run on the 8080. > ... > > later Commodore machines and the 6809 on the Radio Shack Color > > Computer. I think they wrote the cartridge basic for the TI-99 also, > > but I'm not certain of that. > > The BASIC interpreter on the TI-99/4 or /4A was built in. You just had > more memory available if you had a cartridge in the slot. :) > > I don't think Microsoft wrote that BASIC, but I'm not certain either. > I've got all my TI-99/4A documentation around here somewhere. There is a Bill Gates BASIC story that predates Microsoft by a few years. This was an interpreter he and Paul Allen (both teenagers at the time) wrote for the MITS Altair (and was a pretty significant achievement for that machine). And his famous "letter to hobbyists" was aimed at the hobbyists who'd bought the Altair and also copied the paper tape containing his interpreter, which he'd sold to MITS under some royalty agreement. It's described quite colourfully in Steven Levy's book "Hackers", for instance. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010702162824.C4896>