NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Microsoft BASIC

Microsoft BASIC is the foundation product of the Microsoft company. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first BASIC (and indeed the first programming language) available for the MITS Altair 8800 hobbyist microcomputer. Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT) headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Altair BASIC, in its first incarnation, MITS 4K BASIC, was a true milestone in software history — the first programming language for the worlds first truly personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800. ... BASIC is a family of high-level programming languages. ... The MITS Altair 8800 is a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080A CPU. Sold as a kit through Popular Electronics magazine, the designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold over ten times that many in the first month. ... Apple IIc Generally, a microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor (µP) as its CPU. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space. ...

The Altair BASIC interpreter was developed by Microsoft founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates with help from Monte Davidoff, using a self made Intel 8080 software simulator running on a minicomputer. It was delivered on paper tape and in its original version took 4 KB of memory. The extended 8K version was then generalized into BASIC-80 (8080/85, Z80), and ported into BASIC-68 (6800), BASIC-69 (6809), and MOS Technology 6502-BASIC (unfortunately spilling over to 9KB, in an era when 8K ROM chips were standard), as well as the 16-bit BASIC-86 (8086/88). An interpreter is a computer program that executes other programs. ... Paul Allen Paul G. Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an entrepreneur who first established himself by co-founding Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates. ... Bill Gates William Henry Gates III, KBE (born October 28, 1955), commonly known as Bill Gates, is an American businessman and a microcomputer pioneer. ... The Intel 8080 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. ... HP2114 minicomputer Minicomputer is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ... A roll of punched tape Punched tape is an old-fashioned form of data storage, consisting of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched to store data. ... A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 1024 or 1000 bytes. ... The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Zilog from 1976 onwards. ... The 6800 is a microprocessor produced by Motorola and released shortly after the Intel 8080 in 1975. ... The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit* microprocessor from Motorola, introduced circa 1979. ... The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ... The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel in 1978, which gave rise to the x86 architecture. ...

After the initial success of Altair BASIC, Microsoft BASIC became the basis for a lucrative software licensing business, being ported to the majority of the numerous home and personal computers of the 1970s and especially the 1980s, and extended along the way. Contrary to the original Altair BASIC, most home computer BASICs were resident in ROM, and thus were available on the machines at power-on in the form of the characteristic "READY."-prompt. Hence, Microsoft's and other variants of BASIC constituted a significant and visible part of many home computers' rudimentary operating systems. The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... Rom is also the name of a toy and comic book character Rom (Spaceknight). ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ...

Variants and derivatives of Microsoft BASIC

Categories: BASIC dialects | Microsoft development tools Altair BASIC, in its first incarnation, MITS 4K BASIC, was a true milestone in software history — the first programming language for the worlds first truly personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800. ... AmigaBASIC was a BASIC implementation for the Amiga, designed by Microsoft. ... Applesoft BASIC was the second dialect of BASIC supplied on the Apple II computer, superseding Integer BASIC. Applesoft BASIC was supplied by Microsoft; Apple was looking for a new version of BASIC for the Apple II Plus computer with 48 KB of RAM, and after success with Altair BASIC, Microsoft... The Atari Microsoft BASIC and Atari Microsoft BASIC II variants of the BASIC programming language were cartridge or floppy disk packaged versions of the industry standard Microsoft BASIC dialect adapted to the Atari 800 and later Atari computers of that architecture. ... Microsoft BASICA (short for Advanced BASIC) is a simple disk-based BASIC interpreter written by Microsoft for PC-DOS. BASICA allows use of the ROM-resident BASIC on the PC while DOS is loaded (the ROM BASIC itself runs when nothing is loaded when booting) and adds functionality such as... TRS-80 Color Computer II The Radio Shack TRS-80 color computer (also called Tandy Color Computer, or CoCo) was a home computer based around the Motorola 6809E processor and part of the TRS-80 line. ... Commodore BASIC is the dialect of BASIC used in Commodore Internationals 8-bit home computer line, stretching from the PET of 1977 to the C128 of 1985. ... The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 were home computers built in the 1980s. ... GW-BASIC (named after Greg Whitten, an early Microsoft employee and is known more affectionately as gee-whiz) was a dialect of BASIC developed by Microsoft, originally for Compaq. ... MBASIC is the Microsoft BASIC implementation of the BASIC programming language for the CP/M operating system on the 8-bit Intel 8080 processor. ... MSX BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language. ... The opening screen of QBasic 1. ... Microsoft QuickBASIC 4. ... Visual Basic (VB) is an event driven programming language and associated development environment created by Microsoft. ... Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is an implementation of Microsofts Visual Basic which is built into all Microsoft Office applications, some other Microsoft applications such as Visio and is at least partially implemented in some other applications such as AutoCAD and WordPerfect. ...

Variants and derivatives of Microsoft BASIC GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Variants and derivatives of Microsoft BASIC