Notabilia

Computers

Personal Computers

History

Back to where you came from. The same text in Greek.

Not very long ago, things were not always better, yet they were simpler.

Math coprocessors were NOT built in computer processors and had to be purchased separately. Intel The link opens in a new window. math coprocessors looked like today's ROM chips, although bigger in size, had to be inserted in the math coprocessor socket that was available on all motherboards and were accompanied by a diskette containing all of the necessary utilities.

A 5.25 inch diskette was more than enough for the diagnostic tools for IBM The link opens in a new window. computers.

The memory map for the BASIC interpreter was very simple and could fit in half an A4-sized page. The BASIC interpreter itself was equally simple and was available in three versions: Cassette, Disk and Advanced. Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition version 6.0 comes in six, or seven, CDs (we can't remember the exact number), however, version 1.0 of the BASIC compiler would live happily ever after on just two 5.25" diskettes. The number of the compiler's error messages was so limited, that after a while you ended up knowing them backwards.

Following the course of events, RAM The link opens in a new window. magazine offers ΕΡΓΑΛΕΙΑ-1 {ERGALIA-1 ~ TOOLS-1}, a supplementary diskette that accompanies volume 24 of March 1990.

By the way, we would like to inform you that BASIC is an acronym for Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. The language was designed and developed in 1964, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, United States of America.

We would also like to add that IBM is an acronym for International Business Machines.

11-09-2003