On 2015-01-25, 2:01 PM, Holger Granholm -> Alan Zisman wrote:   
    HG> In a message dated 01-24-15, Alan Zisman said to Holger Granholm:   
      
      
    HG> Thanks for the information. When I advanced from assembly code to the   
    HG> CP/M operating system and programming in Turbo Pascal and Turbo C and   
    HG> did then move to DOS where both programming languages were supported.   
      
    HG> I don't recall if Apple supported programming by common users but I do   
    HG> remember that Apple was priced out of my reach when I progressed to the   
    HG> IBM compatible machine and DOS.   
      
   In the 1970s-era personal computers most computers came with some version of   
   other of Basic - Microsoft, for instance, got its start selling Basic for   
   various personal computers, starting with the Altair. When IBM decided to   
   produce its PC, they contacted Microsoft for a version of Basic; while MS was   
   talking with them, they mentioned that they might be able provide an   
   inexpensive operating system - and went and purchased another Seattle company   
   which had a clone of the then-popular CP/M - and hence MS-DOS was 'born'. That   
   original IBM-PC booted to BASIC if no operating system was found, but buyers   
   had the option of purchasing their choice of three different OS's; Microsoft's   
   (called PC-DOS when licensed to IBM) was the cheapest and quickly became the   
   most popular option - and an empire was born.   
      
   But that's getting off the track - in that era, Apple was one of the few   
   popular personal computers that didn't license Microsoft Basic - instead,   
   Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wrote his own version of Basic for the Apple II.   
      
   When the Mac was under development (1982-84), Microsoft contracted to produce   
   several programs for it - and got a good look at the Mac prior to its launch.   
   These included Mac versions of MS's Multiplan spreadsheet and Microsoft Basic.   
   It was a bit odd having a character-line programming environment on the Mac;   
   it pretty much ignored all the graphical goodies that made the Mac unique at   
   the time - instead, it was a pretty standard Basic implementation in a text   
   window.   
      
   (I used a later but similar version - Microsoft's QuickBasic - to write a BBS   
   Simulator program used in my school district to let students pretend to be   
   online on the district's EdNet BBS... schools typically had only one phone   
   line + modem, so the simulator made it possible for a teacher to have an   
   entire class in a computer lab see what they might have in store when -   
   eventually - their turn came to really go online. The Mac version no longer   
   runs on current Macs, but the DOS version still runs in Windows (Amazingly!)   
   If anyone's interested, it cane be downloaded at: http://www.zis   
   an.ca/files/Ed-net.exe ).   
      
   So Basic was available on Apple II and Mac computers from the start - other   
   'hobbyist' programming languages such as Pascal were also available.   
      
   And beginning in 1987, Apple released Hypercard - arguably 'programming for   
   the rest of us' - it was seen as revolutionary at the time: graphical,   
   object-oriented, with what seemed like a natural language programming   
   language. It remained available through 2004 though it had pretty much faded   
   into irrelevance by then. But when it first came out, it was seen by many as   
   the breakthrough for programming in a graphical environment by 'common users'.   
      
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