[Info-vax] OS Ancestry

[Dave Froble]

On 5/14/2021 2:18 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 5/13/2021 9:14 PM, Rich Alderson wrote:
>> =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?= <arne at vajhoej.dk> writes:
>>
>> [ snip ]
>>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC-PLUS
>>
>>> <quote>
>>> BASIC-PLUS is an extended dialect of the BASIC programming language that
>>> was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for use on its
>>> RSTS/E time-sharing operating system for the PDP-11 series of 16-bit
>>> minicomputers in the early 1970s through the 1980s.
>>>
>>> BASIC-PLUS was based on BASIC-8 for the TSS/8, itself based very closely
>>> on the original Dartmouth BASIC. BASIC-PLUS added a number of new
>>> structures, as well as features from JOSS concerning conditional
>>> statements and formatting. In turn, BASIC-PLUS was the version on which
>>> the original Microsoft BASIC was patterned.
>>
>> Wrong.
>>
>> Microsoft BASIC (originally "Altair BASIC") was based on the BASIC for
>> the
>> PDP-10 (later rechristened the "DECsystem-10" when a new processor,
>> the KI-10,
>> was introducec).  Bill Gates and Paul Allen learned BASIC first on a
>> GE-635
>> running GECOS (on the GE Information Systems network), then expanded
>> their use
>> on a PDP-10 in Seattle.
>>
>> DISCLAIMER: I worked for Paul Allen for 15 years, building his
>> computer museum,
>> and was a first reader for his autobiography, so I'm very well aware
>> of where
>> he learned BASIC.  In point of fact, neither of them ever programmed on a
>> PDP-11 (personal communication from PGA).
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_BASIC
>
> explains where the story come from.
>
> <quote>
> The Altair BASIC interpreter was developed by Microsoft founders Paul
> Allen and Bill Gates using a self-made Intel 8080 emulator running on a
> PDP-10 minicomputer.[1] The MS dialect is patterned on Digital Equipment
> Corporation's BASIC-PLUS on the PDP-11, which Gates had used in high
> school.[2] The first versions supported integer math only, but Monte
> Davidoff convinced them that floating-point arithmetic was possible, and
> wrote a library which became the Microsoft Binary Format.
> </quote>
>
> 2. Manes, Stephen (1993). Gates. Doubleday. p. 61. ISBN 9780385420754.
>
> Arne
>
>

Not everything on Wikipedia is correct.  I've found things about me that 
were incorrect.

As for Gates and Allen, I remember their work on that version of Basic. 
The reason I remember it so well, is because they didn't use bytes for 
some things, they used nibbles.  Memory was rather valuable in those days.

I can also say that there is much difference between that Basic and 
Basic Plus.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
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