Daniel Robbins hired by M$

[James Knott]

D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> | From: Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
> 
> | There were, in general terms, three versions of Microsoft's BASICs,
> | back in those days...  There was "Level 1", which was exceedingly
> | primitive.  Level 2 was what a lot of people started programming with
> | whether on TRS-80s, Apples, or IBM PCs.  Level 3 had some "holy grail"
> | stuff going on, but wasn't available in time to be interesting...
> 
> Actually, for the Altair, it came in 4K and 8k versions, if my memory
> isn't failing me.  8k was normal, 4k was stripped to fit in more
> affordable configurations.  Remember, the Altair base memory was 128
> bytes.  Memory cost a lot.  Generally static RAM, too!
> 
> My Altair has 64K (but 16K is disabled to allow some address space for
> my EPROM).

My IMSAI didn't come with any memory.  I had to buy a 16K board & 4KB of
memory, before I could do anything.

> 
> I have a (legal, I think) copy of the 8k Micro Soft BASIC on paper
> tape.  I've not owned a paper tape reader and an Altair
> simultaneously, so I've not tried the tape.

I had a BASIC tape that came from somewhere that I don't recall
(Processor Techology?).  I used SCELBAL from Scelbi, for my BASIC
interpreter.
> 
> I'm actually more impressed by the PDP-8 LISP that I have in paper
> tape.  It fits runs in 4K 12-bit words, of which half are occupied by
> the interpreter and the rest are available for list space.
> 
> I guess reading these tapes by eye might actually be practical.  I've
> been too lazy so far.  Besides, I don't think I'd do anything with
> them anyway.

I had to be able to read both 5 & 8 level tape, as part of my job, back
in the '70s.  I think I've still got my paper tape gauge here somewhere
(it was used to make sure the hole spacing was correct).  I eventually
bought a surplus M35 ASR from my employer, which I used with my IMSAI,
though I generally used cassettes, instead of paper tape.

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