Thomas E. Kurtz has died

(computerhistory.org)

614 points 1986 | 1 comments | 14 Nov 24 22:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.214s | source

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EvanAnderson ◴[14 Nov 24 22:48 UTC] No.42142043[source]▶

Could we get a black bar for Dr. Kurtz, please?

The legacy of BASIC on our industry can hardly be understated. The language and its mission at Dartmouth was innovative.

BASIC had immeasurable secondary effects simply by being the first programming language so many new computer users were exposed to (particularly near the dawn of personal computers).

Edit: I got sucked into some nostalgia.

Here's the 1964 edition of the Dartmouth BASIC reference: http://web.archive.org/web/20120716185629/http://www.bitsave...

It's really charming, and I think it gives you a bit of the feel for the time.

(I also particularly like, on page 21, the statement "TYPING IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THINKING".)

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pieter_mj ◴[15 Nov 24 22:53 UTC] No.42152207[source]▶

>>42142043 #

In the manual they have the symbols for zero (0) and the letter O switched.

This leads to the statement : F0R X=1 T0 1OO.

Was it really that way back(wards) in 1964?

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1. alexjm ◴[16 Nov 24 00:08 UTC] No.42152837[source]▶

>>42152207 #

It's most likely legacy from pre-computer unit record equipment. These machines could only handle numbers and printed zeros without a slash because there was nothing to confuse them with. When letters were later added, it was the new character that got the slash.

Additional citation hunting from 2020 when the BASIC manual was shared & discussed here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25462835

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