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Old 12-04-2012, 04:15 AM   #41
Nathanael
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Shanghai, China
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
Absolutely. Bill Gates made his first millions by (personally) writing ROM BASIC interpreters for the first generations of home computers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
And though it is irrelevant now, let's not forget the one that started it all -

Microsoft Basic!
Ahem -- *ALTAIR* Basic, if you don't mind. Gates'/Allen's first BASIC was developed in 1975 for the Altair. It was generalized a year later as BASIC-80 for 8080-based CP/M machines. I've still got my old check register program I wrote in BASIC-80 on my TRS-80, which I later ported to Q-BASIC when I moved to DOS.

And in 1977 Microsoft ported its BASIC to the 6502 and licensed it to some company form Cupertino called -- what was it? oh, yeah -- Apple. At the time Microsoft had a total of six employees. In a grand bit of historical irony it was the phenomenal success of the Apple II which turned Microsoft into a million-dollar company.
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