Thomas Kurtz, Co-inventor of BASIC has passed away
With a sad but grateful Heart
The last of the co-inventors of the BASIC programming language passed away on the 12th of November at the age of 96 (CHM article). Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny pioneered the language that made the personal computer era possible. Their contribution can not be under estimated. From the earliest significant kit PCs to those made in the 1980s they all shipped with a BASIC interpreter built-in. It was necessary to learn the language to do anything useful with a PC since software did not yet exist. 
But the language was made for learning and it is easy to learn.
Their influence does not stop there. Many languages over the years have been formed by BASIC in one way or another. Many companies have made parts of their fortunes on various versions of BASIC. Many computer professionals started with their BASIC interpreters on their PCs. Kurtz and Kemeny's contribution to PCs was HUGE!
A personal tale
In the mid '70s my dad went to work as a purchasing agent for an electronics development firm. He discovered they had a Nova mini system that nobody was using. He knew that a computer could help him track his purchases and requirements but no one at the firm knew how. He found the "Business BASIC" manual and taught himself to program. One dark night he woke and carted me off to another office, where the system was housed. He turned on the "video terminal" and attached printer and typed:
10 FOR X=1 TO 10
20 PRINT X
30 NEXT X
RUN
The printer dutifully printed out what the terminal showed and the terminal counted from 1 to 10, one number per line. My head darn near exploded. My body tingled. I realized that here was a machine that could be told to do anything and it would do it without question! I still marvel that I realized the implications at such a tender age. But I was uber-thrilled with this machine!
Dad snatched the print out from the printer, handed it to me and I was returned to my slumbers.
Not too long after that Dad brought home a TRS-80 model 1 level 1. He fiddled with it for a few days. Then he took it back and had the level 2 upgrade installed. Eventually we maxed it out with expansion interface, 3 double-sided, double-density floppy drives (the model 1 would handle four without the "double-side" mod), 48K RAM, RS-232, speaker and a "Line Printer III" (rebranded Centronics, wide carriage 9pin dot-matrix printer). That printer pounded paper for the remainder of my life at home. 10+yrs!
I taught myself BASIC on the TRS-80 from the level 1 manual and the level 2 reference manual. I've written many professional apps in BASIC from simple menu systems to nursing staff management software. Look around the iNet and tales of those who started out and were captured by the BASIC interpreters on their home PCs abound.
Thank you Kurtz and Kemeny!
Get your copy of Pi Shack BASIC here!
Foot note: In my one and only BASIC programming class at the Radio Shack computer lab, the instructor said that the language was named "BASIC" simply because it was a "basic" programming language. However the pressure to make the name an acronym came to bear and they came up with: "Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code"!
