4 ms·

> Micro computers had BASIC In a large number of cases, that BASIC was Microsoft's, as well. So they were already dominating the non-GUI realm of personal comp

by LocalH 5y ago

> Micro computers had BASIC In a large number of cases, that BASIC was Microsoft's, as well. So they were already dominating the non-GUI realm of personal computing.

hnlmorg 5y ago
Thankfully here in Europe we had more variety. Commodore was still hugely popular but so was Acorn (BBC Basic was one of the best of the era) and Amstrad (Locomotive BASIC was loosely based on BBC Basic, so also pretty awesome). Sinclair machines (eg Spectrum) were also popular but that's one of the few machines of that era I didn't do any development on (played plenty of games but man are their keyboards annoying for any prolonged typing!) so cannot comment on how Sinclair BASIC performed against Microsoft BASIC.
nine_k 5y ago
Yes, AFAICT, many computers of the widely popular MSX standard used Basic made by Microsoft. Frankly, it was pretty nice, and had powerful extensions / special commands to make use of the hardware (graphics, sounds, networking). For a one-user, one-task computer, you didn't need much of a proper OS anyway.
- hnlmorg 5y ago
  > Frankly, it was pretty nice, and had powerful extensions / special commands to make use of the hardware (graphics, sounds, networking). That was standard across all the major dialects of BASIC in that era. Personally I was less impressed with Microsoft BASIC compared to the European counterparts. What I never understood was in the early 80s the UK had a real lead on the computer industry with Amstrad, Acorn and Sinclair all doing some really interesting stuff. But by the late 80s / early 90s all the UK systems had disappeared and replaced with Japanese consoles and American home computers. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Japanese nor American corporations -- it just feels like a real loss for the UK to go from world leaders to just another consumer.

4 ms·

> Micro computers had BASIC In a large number of cases, that BASIC was Microsoft's, as well. So they were already dominating the non-GUI realm of personal comp

by LocalH 5y ago

> Micro computers had BASIC In a large number of cases, that BASIC was Microsoft's, as well. So they were already dominating the non-GUI realm of personal computing.

hnlmorg 5y ago
Thankfully here in Europe we had more variety. Commodore was still hugely popular but so was Acorn (BBC Basic was one of the best of the era) and Amstrad (Locomotive BASIC was loosely based on BBC Basic, so also pretty awesome). Sinclair machines (eg Spectrum) were also popular but that's one of the few machines of that era I didn't do any development on (played plenty of games but man are their keyboards annoying for any prolonged typing!) so cannot comment on how Sinclair BASIC performed against Microsoft BASIC.
nine_k 5y ago
Yes, AFAICT, many computers of the widely popular MSX standard used Basic made by Microsoft. Frankly, it was pretty nice, and had powerful extensions / special commands to make use of the hardware (graphics, sounds, networking). For a one-user, one-task computer, you didn't need much of a proper OS anyway.
- hnlmorg 5y ago
  > Frankly, it was pretty nice, and had powerful extensions / special commands to make use of the hardware (graphics, sounds, networking). That was standard across all the major dialects of BASIC in that era. Personally I was less impressed with Microsoft BASIC compared to the European counterparts. What I never understood was in the early 80s the UK had a real lead on the computer industry with Amstrad, Acorn and Sinclair all doing some really interesting stuff. But by the late 80s / early 90s all the UK systems had disappeared and replaced with Japanese consoles and American home computers. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Japanese nor American corporations -- it just feels like a real loss for the UK to go from world leaders to just another consumer.