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Followed by a full-page ad for a Forth interpreter! Those were the days. I suspect many companies like this could make money for lack of competition, but I dunn

Followed by a full-page ad for a Forth interpreter! Those were the days. I suspect many companies like this could make money for lack of competition, but I dunno, I was 10 years old then.

quickthrower2 9y ago
Yeah now there are so many free programming languages, you have to pay me (with $ or an awesome language) to use your interpreter!
- rbanffy 9y ago
  It's interesting how free software drove huge advancements. In the early 386 days few people used Unix because a seat license would cost more than the computer. At first I thought we were attaining a critical mass, when enough free software was available for us to build even more, better free software but now I realize it's more like an exponential curve I can't quite see where it ends. And if feels great.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    The side effect of it is that the majority of RAD like tools are only available in enterprise space, because only those companies are willing to pay for developer tools. Hence why companies like Qt or JetBrains are selective what they allow with their free versions. Then we get Electron apps, because many devs don't feel like paying for such tools.
simmons 9y ago
I occasionally thumb through these old magazines, and I'm always impressed with how many small technology businesses were making niche products and placing these ads in the 80's. What I find more astonishing is how geographically diverse they were. For example, of the 14 ads in this article with addresses, only 3 were from the Bay Area.