Altair BASIC
Altair BASIC is a BASIC - interpreter for the Altair 8800 computer. It was distributed by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems and Microsoft .
history
In 1975 the student Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed the BASIC interpreter Altair BASIC for the Altair 8800 computer from Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems on an emulator for the Intel 8080 processor that ran on a mainframe computer at Washington State University . Monte Davidoff programmed the routines for processing floating point numbers . The program was sold both as punched tape and as a compact cassette (CC), and later also on diskette .
In 1976 Bill Gates published his Open Letter to Hobbyists , in which he complained about the low sales figures compared to the widespread use of Altair BASIC and called on computer hobbyists to honestly buy professional software . Altair BASIC became the first Microsoft product, Microsoft BASIC , which was offered and further developed in several versions for various home computers .
Versions
- Altair BASIC
The standard version performs arithmetic functions with an accuracy of 6 decimal places . It allows several commands in one line and requires at least 4 kB RAM .
- Altair 8K BASIC
Extends the standard version by commands for binary and extended arithmetic functions, longer strings , more dimensions for arrays and removes restrictions on the maximum nesting depth of loops . At least 8 kB of RAM are required.
- Altair Extended BASIC
The 8K version with increased precision of the arithmetic functions to 12 decimal places and an extended output command. At least 16 kB of RAM are required.
- Altair Disk BASIC
The extended version includes commands for using a floppy disk drive . At least 24 kB of RAM are required.
- Altair timeshare BASIC
An extension of the Extended Version, which is available with and without the disk commands. It allows multiple users to use one Altair computer at the same time. At least 32 kB of RAM are required.
Individual evidence
- ↑ N.Montfort, P.Baudoin, J.Bell, I.Bogot, J.Douglass and others. a. 10PRINT CHR $ (205.5 + RND (1)); : GOTO 10 Cambridge, MIT Press (2013) ISBN 978-0-262-01846-3 p. 169 ( Online. (PDF 50 MB) Accessed February 27, 2014 (English). )
- ↑ N.Montfort u. a. 10PRINT CHR $ (205.5 + RND (1)); : GOTO 10 Cambridge, MIT Press (2013) p. 158
- ^ Altair BASIC. William Thomas Sanderson, accessed February 27, 2014 .