Inventors
BASIC
-
(Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)
By
Mary
Bellis
BASIC (standing for Beginner's
All Purpose Symbolic
Instruction
Code) was
written (invented) in 1963, at Dartmouth College, by mathematicians John
George Kemeny and Tom Kurtzas as a teaching tool for undergraduates. BASIC
has been one of the most commonly used computer programming languages,
a simple computer language considered an easy step for students to learn
before more powerful languages such as FORTRAN.
BASIC's popularity was spread by
both Paul Allen and William Gates, in 1975. Gates and Allen (both Microsoft
founding fathers) wrote a version of BASIC for the Altair
personal computer. It was the first product Microsoft sold. Later Gates
and Microsoft wrote versions of BASIC for the Apple
computer, and IBM's
DOS which Gates provided came with its' version of BASIC.
Development
of BASIC
A brief history of BASIC.
Beginner's
All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC)
Longer, more detailed history of
BASIC.
All
BASIC Code Archives
For those of you wishing to program
in BASIC.
Computer
Language
General background information on
computer languages.
The
History of Programming
Timeline of programming history.
Related Information
More
Software History
Computers
History
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