> The ubiquity of microcomputer BASIC in the 80s -- often as the first thing users see, or the only thing they see absent a cartridge or disk or something loade

> The ubiquity of microcomputer BASIC in the 80s -- often as the first thing users see, or the only thing they see absent a cartridge or disk or something loaded into the machine to run something else -- seemed to suggest that computers are meant to be programmed, the way pens are meant to be written with. It was a complete accident, of course I don't think it was an accident. BASIC was designed to be a simple language that was efficient with limited hardware resources, easy for beginners to learn and use, and powerful enough to do useful things. It turned out to be a perfect fit for microcomputers for those reasons. Especially in an era before platform standardization and giant software ecosystems, end-user programming was assumed and intended. (Even more so with "educational" microcomputers like the BBC Micro.) > no one at the computer companies could think of what someone would want a microcomputer for, aside from video games On mobile (and probably PC as well), games still dominate app sales by a large margin. But in the early 1980s, microcomputer "business" (now "office" and "enterprise") software was already well established, including word processors (wordstar), spreadsheets (visicalc), databases (dbase) and software for mailing lists, billing, payroll, etc.