[geeks] [rescue] BASIC

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Dave Fischer writes ...
> nate at portents.com writes:
> 
> >No experience with that in particular, but this reminds me 
> >of something
> >I've been wondering lately... is there any measure of the 
> >impact of BASIC
> >on computing?  The reason I ask is that it wasn't until 
> >recently that I
> >realized that Wang 2200 series ran a microcoded interpreted BASIC
> >(dialects such as Wang BASIC and BASIC-2), which other companies have
> >since developed compilers for... I was rather shocked at the idea of
> >microcoding an interpreted language into a computer.
> 
> I believe MAI BASIC-4 minicomputers did something similar.

Didn't the IBM 51xx predecessors to the 5150 "IBM PC" have either BASIC or
APL as a sort of combination OS/language?

FWIW, Microsoft has had BASIC compilers since forever; I used one under
TRSDOS on a Radio Shack TRS-80 mod II in 1979.

-Shel