Home Computers and Line Numbered BASIC Interpreters

If you're like me, you started using computers back in the early days when a computer was something you could hook up to your television set.  Turn it on and immediately it would greet you with something like:

Super Duper BASIC v2.02
28467 bytes free
Ready
_

This was the most typical way a computer would start up.  You are then in BASIC, ready to explore programming more or less instantly.  There was nothing to download or install.  There was no antivirus software to harass you before you could proceed, and you did not need to boot your computer from a hard disk, log in, and then use a menu system to launch your programming language.

Your computer came with a book (yes, really) that started you on your programming journey in friendly terms, and happy looking cartoons.

In a few minutes you could have a simple example program from the book typed in and then typed RUN to see it in action.  A couple of hours into the book and you were a budding programmer.

There was no need to learn large volumes of functions just to put anything on the screen.  Was it primitive?  You bet.  The good thing about it was that mastery was attainable without going to school.

With computers today?  Forget all that.  I guess you could say that only the most determined people will learn to program now because they have to go exploring into the expanses of the Internet to figure out how to start.

Home computers.  Yup, we called them that before the term personal computer became popular.

The built in BASIC language in these machines is like clay in your hands.

• Turn on the computer and start coding in seconds.
• Execute code without a program.  Just type some code by itself and press Enter.
• Add code to your program one line at a time and just type RUN to try it.
• Stop and restart a running program.  Change it and resume running.
• Type a program in from one of many popular magazines.  Learn to program by changing the program to make it your own.  Copying and pasting code from the Internet is just not the same.

People like to say unkind things about that era and all the messy looking code that BASIC encouraged.  I say that interpreted BASIC was a natural fit for that time.  It probably would have been hard to do it any other way.

I think that there are lessons to be learned from all this.  The kinds of computer literacy that we have today is only enough to use the computer to consume.  We only think that we know how to use the computer, but we really only know enough to run apps.

How do we make the real power of computers accessible again?  How can we restore the immediacy and interactivity of a BASIC interpreter to the end user?

You know what?  You can go on ebay and just buy one of these computers.  Prepare to be charmed.  :-)

Moving Up

A few months into my new job at C.F.C. I wrote an application for Tina in accounting. She had the only computer in the building that had a hard drive. It was an Epson Equity which is an IBM XT clone with a monochrome green screen and a 20MB hard drive running MS-DOS 2.11. I'm guessing a heard Tina and Simone (who is Bob's wife and VP of the company) talking about a need, and I must have offered to craft a solution for them. Simone probably asked me with surprise, "Can you do that?" I was eager to jump right in. I'm pretty sure that GW-BASIC was already installed on the computer. :-)

Up to this point my programming work for engineering and accounting was done on my own initiative. I wasn't trying to attract attention, but Bob noticed my enthusiasm for software development. He is an open minded person, and his whole business was personal and informal so he must have found it easy to promote me out of engineering. I became the company's in-house computer programmer. That was quick! I didn't get a pay raise but how could I complain? This was exactly what I wanted and it was an opportunity for him too.

This is the sort of business that just begs to be automated. Bob certainly knew this. One programmer could keep himself busy with interesting work for many years and I was the lucky fellow.