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It’s BASIC*

[By staff reporters]

From Thomas Edison to former President Ronald Reagan and novelist Kurt Vonnegut, GE has employed a number of luminaries over the course of its 123-year history.

But, one famous last name that’s been missing from this list is Spielberg.

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Enter Arnold Spielberg

In the late 1950s, Arnold Spielberg, the father of Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, helped revolutionize computing when he designed the GE-225 mainframe computer. The machine allowed a team of Dartmouth University students and researchers to develop the BASIC programing language, an easy-to-use coding tool that quickly spread and ushered in the era of personal computers.

(Young Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs all used the language when they started building their digital empires.)

LINK: http://www.gereports.com/post/117791167040/its-basic-arnold-spielberg-and-the-birth-of

More:

• Happy Birthday Alan Mathison Turing
• Acknowledging Ada Lovelace Day [“Mother” of HIT?]
• Ode to Steve Jobs

More on BASIC*

BASIC (an acronym for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use.

In 1964, John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz designed the original BASIC language at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. They wanted to enable students in fields other than science and mathematics to use computers. At the time, nearly all use of computers required writing custom software, which was something only scientists and mathematicians tended to learn.

Versions of BASIC became widespread on microcomputers in the mid-1970s and 1980s. Microcomputers usually shipped with BASIC, often in the machine’s firmware. Having an easy-to-learn language on these early personal computers allowed small business owners, professionals, hobbyists, and consultants to develop custom software on computers they could afford.

BASIC remains popular in many dialects and in new languages influenced by BASIC, such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic. In 2006, 59% of developers for the .NET Framework used Visual Basic .NET as their only programming language.

Conclusion

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Filed under: Information Technology | Tagged: Arnold Spielberg, Basic, Bill Gates, Birth of Personal Computing, GE, Paul Allen, PC, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak | 2 Comments »