Milestone-Proposal:BASIC
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Docket #:2015-03
This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone
To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation? No
Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes
Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes
Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes
Was it of at least regional importance? Yes
Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes
Has the IEEE Section(s) in which the plaque(s) will be located agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes
Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes
Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes
Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:
1964
Title of the proposed milestone:
The BASIC Programming Language, 1964
Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance; if personal name(s) are included, such name(s) must follow the achievement itself in the citation wording: Text absolutely limited by plaque dimensions to 70 words; 60 is preferable for aesthetic reasons.
Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) was created in this building. During the mid-1970s and 1980s, BASIC was the principal programming language used on early microcomputers. Its simplicity and wide acceptance made it useful in fields beyond science and mathematics, and enabled more people to harness the power of computation.
200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.
IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.
In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?
New Hampshire
IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:
IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):
Unit: New Hamsphire Section
Senior Officer Name: Kat Reagan
IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:
Unit: New Hampshire Section
Senior Officer Name: Kat Reagan
IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):
IEEE Section: New Hampshire Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Kat Reagan
Milestone proposer(s):
Proposer name: Richard G. Mills, Sr.
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public
Proposer name: Kat Reagan
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public
Proposer name: Jim Isaak
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public
Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.
Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):
Address: Collis Center, 2 N Main St, Hanover, NH 03755, Coordinates: 43.702668,-72.289845
Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.
Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. The BASIC Programming language was designed and implemented by two professors of Dartmouth College, Professor John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz in the building, Collis Center
Are the original buildings extant?
Yes
Details of the plaque mounting:
On the outside of the building.
How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?
It will be outside the building.
Who is the present owner of the site(s)?
Dartmouth College
What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include detailed support at the end of this section preceded by "Justification for Inclusion of Name(s)". (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)
The era of the early 1960s ushered in a major shift in computing, and the creation of the BASIC programming language was an essential part of that shift. At the time, nearly all use of computers required writing custom software, which was something only scientists and mathematicians tended to learn. Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) had syntax that anyone can learn quickly. Thus, the language became relevant to people in other fields.
BASIC language was designed to allow for time-sharing. Previously, expensive computers could only dedicate batch processing for one program at a time. The infamous punch card had a 24-hour-turnaround interface that limited the access to these powerful machines. As a result, all access to the mainframe was controlled by assemblers. BASIC language helped revolutionize access with HP Time-Shared BASIC, an interpreter software system that allowed many ordinary folks, so to speak, to simultaneously access the computer power on external terminals as if it was dedicated. [1] With accessibility in mind and a desire for the language to become widespread, Professors John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz made the compiler available free of charge which was not common for the time. They also made it available to regional high further spreading computer literacy. To further elaborate the simplicity of the language, Ben Shneiderman, a distinguished CS Professor of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematics, and Natural Science, wrote a children’s introduction to BASIC titled “Let’s Learn BASIC” after being inspired by his 8-year-old daughter. [2]
Pushing accessible computing lead to the technical revolution of personal computing. Young Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs all used the BASIC language when they started building their digital empires. Published in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, the Altair 8800 first programming language was Microsoft’s founding product, Altair BASIC. [3] While MITS expected to only sell a few hundred machines, they had a few thousand orders within weeks and thus the Altair BASIC and Altair 8800 are often attributed to the rapid rise of personal computers years later. [4] This set the stage for the microcomputer revolution. And for some time, Microsoft’s Quick Basic was the only programming language available for PCs.
BASIC also played a role in video game development with Steve Wozniak’s influence. Steve Wozniak, as an attempt to create a language intended primarily for games and educational uses, created Integer BASIC also known as the BASIC interpreter for Apple I and Apple II computers. Beloved Apple games, such as Breakout, was developed with this BASIC derivative. During a 1984 interview for BYTE magazine, Steve Wozniak stated that demonstrating Breakout was the “most satisfying day of my life … I knew that being able to program them [arcade games] in BASIC was going to change the world.” [5]
Not only did BASIC have a part in the history of microcomputers and the hobbyist’s interest in personal PCs, it shared a part in simplifying Microsoft’s GUI development. Writing Windows applications was difficult – often taking months to develop with C. Seeking to find an easier method of GUI development, Microsoft contracted the company Tripod to develop a drag and drop system under the code name Ruby. However, Tripod failed to include a programming language at all! Thus, Microsoft paired its beloved BASIC language with Ruby in what would be known as Visual BASIC. Visual BASIC 1.0 was introduced in 1991 by combining the GUI interface generator Ruby with the programming language BASIC. This merge was used in the creation of Windows 3.0 and multiple subsequent Window versions along with other critical and beloved Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Office. Starting in 1991, this language last stable release was Visual BASIC in 1998. However, Microsoft continued its support a decade later. [6]
In summary, it is hard to quantify the impact the Dartmouth BASIC had in Computer Science. The change of placing power into the hands of the end user over system owners was a monumental improvement in the accessibility of computer power to the world. These new users would benefit hugely from their new ability to harness the computation power in their attack on the problems of their widely diverse fields of endeavor. And influence the next generation of great visionaries like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Rather than a punched-card 24-hour-turnaround interface, computer power would be brought to the users on the users’ own terms – to each user’s place and choice of the time. But having achieved convenience of access, it required BASIC – an uncomplicated, familiarly structured language interface – to open the door to so many non-computer professionals. Thus BASIC, the creation of Professors John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz of Dartmouth College, sowed the seed in freeing professionals and students across fields from the need to become, at some level, “computer experts” if they wished to include computational power in their kits of tools. And those tools were taken and modified to push and flourish the growth of innovations brought by the computational power of personal computers.
What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?
Given that the language was meant to be easy to learn, some older computer scientists discredited the importance of BASIC or outright slandered it. Edsger W. Dijkstra wrote in his paper "How do we tell truths that might hurt?" (1975)
“It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration”
What features set this work apart from similar achievements?
This is the first programming language whose design philosophy emphasized the ease of use. John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz designed the original BASIC to enable students in fields other than science and mathematics to use computers. At the time, nearly all use of computers required writing custom software, which was something only scientists and mathematicians tended to learn. Due to easy of use, this help usher a new wave of computer scientists such as Steve Wozniak and Bill Gate who built their silicon empires on BASIC.
Why was the achievement successful and impactful?
Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.
Back to BASIC: The History, Corruption, and Future of the Language by John G. Kemeny, Thomas E. Kurtz (1985)
[1] Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal. Times Magazine, April 29, 2014 File:Times Magazine 50 Years of Basic.pdf
[2] Advances in Computers, Volume 24, Marshall C. Yovits
[3] The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia : Chronology. Vol. 3, Volume 3
[4] March of the outdated machines https://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn17805-computer-museums-of-the-world/
[5] Williams, Gregg; Moore, Rob (December 1984). "The Apple Story / Part 1: Early History". BYTE (interview). pp. A67. Retrieved 23 October 2013. File:1984 12 BYTE 09-13 Communications.pdf
[6] C++ for VB Programmers, Jonathan Morrison 2000
Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.
Fred K. Manasse; The Dartmouth concept: learning in the real world; IEEE Spectrum; Year: 1972, Volume: 9, Issue: 2; Pages: 36 - 40 File:The Dartmouth Concept Learning in the Real World.pdf
Sakari T. Jutila; Giora Baram; A User-Oriented Evaluation of a Time-Shared Computer System; IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics; Year: 1971, Volume: SMC-1, Issue: 4; Pages: 344 - 349
D. A. Roberson; A microprocessor-based portable computer: The IBM 5100; Proceedings of the IEEE; Year: 1976, Volume: 64, Issue: 6; Pages: 994 - 999 File:Portable Microcomputer CrossAssembler In BASIC.pdf
S. W. Conley, Portable Microcomputer Cross-Assembler in BASIC; IEEE Computer; Year: 1975, Volume: 8, Issue: 10; Pages: 32 - 42
Allison, Dennis. "Design notes for TINY BASIC". SIGPLAN Notices. (July 1976) ACM. 11 (7): 25–33. doi:10.1145/987491.987494. The ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN) reprinted the Tiny Basic design notes from the January 1976 Tiny BASIC Journal
Isaak,James; Microsystems Standards for the Personal Computing Network, IEEE Computer; Year: 1978, Volume: 11, Issue: 10; Pages: 60 - 63 File:Standards for Personal Computing.pdf
Applications literature: Microcomputer hardware and software explained; IEEE Spectrum; Year: 1979, Volume: 16, Issue: 2; Pages: 96 - 101
Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).
Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.
