On Wed, 2008-04-02 at 07:45 -0700, Craig White wrote: > On Wed, 2008-04-02 at 09:31 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote: > > Les wrote: > > > Actually, Microsoft was a late comer to personal computers. I own > > > (still) an Altair 8800B, and owned a > > > Morrow Microdecision before that, both on CP/M. And prior to that I had > > > systems that ran various other OS's > > > that were a bit more limited, and one straight bootstrap system for > > > which you had to furnish an OS of your favorite > > > flavor. Microsoft did not create, or really enable personal computers, > > > they just got the contract to write the OS for IBM, and were able to > > > bootstrap that into the corporation you see today. > > > > > Microsoft's entry into the personal computer market was by supplying > > a version of BASIC that for several operating systems. I can > > remember loading it from tape, and later burning it to EPROM with a > > small relocation program to move it into RAM at the address it > > expected to run. (It was not relocatable...) > ---- > I have that tape still... > > Microsoft's version for Apple...called 'Floating Point Basic Language' > for Apple ][ because my original Apple ][ had integer basic in ROM and > Floating Point Basic had to be loaded from a cassette. I do sort of > wonder if it has any value. THAT's the one I had, what a pirating tool it was, too!! Heheheh, just note the starting address of a binary program loaded into memory, note the length, and save it to tape after hitting the reset button. Then we'd load up a real system disk, reload the program back from tape and "bsave" it to a floppy, noting the start and length parameters, and you had that sucker. God only knows how many space games we liberated from copy-protected disks. Then, Jobs decided to make the Apple][+, so there would be no more pirating shenanigans. Right. We made eprom copies of the original integer basic roms to load into the plus machines. Those were the good-ole days, for sure. I still have a cassette copy of the Apple floating point basic, too. I wish I had kept the Red and Blue Books. Woz was/is a Saint. I wish he'd come out on the Linux side. Ric -- ================================================ My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say: "There are two Great Sins in the world... ..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity. Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad. Linux user# 44256 Sign up at: http://counter.li.org/ http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/oar http://www.wayward4now.net <---down4now too ================================================
