Born To RUN: Dartmouth Throwing BASIC a 50th B-Day Party 146
theodp writes: "Still hanging on to a dog-eared copy of BASIC Computer Games? Back issues of Creative Computing? Well then, Bunky, mark your calendar for April 30th, because Dartmouth College is throwing BASIC a 50th birthday party that you won't want to miss! From the 'invite' to BASIC at 50: 'At 4 a.m. on May 1, 1964, in the basement of College Hall, Professor John Kemeny and a student programmer simultaneously typed RUN on neighboring terminals. When they both got back correct answers to their simple programs, time-sharing and BASIC were born. Kemeny, who later became Dartmouth's 13th president, Professor Tom Kurtz, and a number of undergraduate students worked together to revolutionize computing with the introduction of time-sharing and the BASIC programming language. Their innovations made computing accessible to all Dartmouth students and faculty, and soon after, to people across the nation and the world [video — young Bill Gates cameo @2:18]. This year, Dartmouth is celebrating 50 years of BASIC with a day of events on Wednesday, April 30. Please join us as we recognize the enduring impact of BASIC, showcase innovation in computing at Dartmouth today, and imagine what the next 50 years may hold.' Be sure to check out the vintage photos on Flickr to see what real cloud computing looks like, kids!"
Memories (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember as a child reading BASIC programs out of Compute Magazine for my dad to type in on our TI computer. That likely means I was reading code before I read my first real novel, which is amusing.
I try not to admit at work that I've had to learn VBA for Excel for a tool we use.
I still program in BASIC. (Sometimes) (Score:3, Interesting)
BASIC is where M$ got its start (Score:5, Interesting)
(That and the $ helps to distinguish Microsoft from multiple sclerosis [jokebuddha.com].)
Dartmouth CS (Score:1, Interesting)
I graduated from Dartmouth in 2002 with a CS degree. Let me tell you, the reason they are throwing this big party for BASIC is because that department hasn't done shit since 1964. If I had to do it again, I would do it at a different school. The only good thing I can say about Dartmouth is that I found refuge in a gentle, fostering fraternity [sigmanudartmouth.com] -- and that is the one thing that the Dartmouth administration has been bent on destroying [dartmouth.edu]. That campus is a wasteland of feuding heartless conservatives [dartreview.com] and asinine liberals [dartmouth.edu]. Good riddance.
BASIC was kind of cool, though. I used it in middle school to print endless streams of naughty words. I don't know if it can do anything besides that.