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To: Harvey Allen who wrote (20123)	6/22/1998 4:48:00 AM
From: Charles Hughes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

>>>This is the first computer language program written for a personal computer. [123] <<< No. It was handy, but this port of the public domain basic known around campuses as tiny basic was not first. In fact it was probably ported using the first language for the 8080, the 8080 Assembler. I doubt they had the chops to do it in machine language, though it is possible. Think about this, guys: If other people had invented the boards, invented the buses, invented the chips, invented an OS, written bios's, and were selling kits and whole systems, and obviously they intended that programmers would take advantage of all that work, who were the visionaries? Obviously, the engineers that made these computers in the first place, and the programmer-enthusiasts, hardware hackers, and others that created this market for a couple of enterprising boys from Harvard to notice? In point of fact, there were something like kit computers going all the way back to the sixties. In point of fact, I was using something very like a personal computer back in 1972 to do pollution studies - smaller than the drawers on one side of your desk, programmable in something kinda like a limited fortran - much like basic is, in fact. Point of fact, IBM and CDC and others had very expensive units that did approximately the same thing much earlier. They had RPG, they had FORTRAN, they had COBOL. They were not much larger than my tower unit is today. They were 50 to a hundred grand, of course. But if it is not the price, but the single user nature and the small size that makes something a personal computer, then there were personal computers since the early space program. It was in fact for capsule computational tasks that much of the miniaturazation of computers began. What began to make the whole thing cheaper was the successful low cost integration of the computers and displays in games like 'pong.' After that, the path for the PC was obvious. You want to look for the innovators and early visionaries you better get way back before the Altair basic interpreter port team. People such as they (and I) were the market for the original manufacturers to sell to, and really the best that can be claimed is that we knew a good thing when we saw it, and that Gates and Allen did great things with the idea once they became aware of it. Full marks to them for that. Plus billions and billions of dollars. But when the thing really started they were in grade school. Some would say by the time there were actual products like the Altair the truly exciting pioneering phase was almost over, and the productizing of the concepts had begun. In fact I say it. In these days PR is everything to personal legends, of course. Never mind that you trample the memory and accomplishments of so many that were brighter and braver and far less well paid pioneers. We all think the universe began in earnest when we first saw the light. I guess that's human. Cheers, Chaz