[Coco] CoCoFEST - Dart Time Sharing System Contest

Wayne Campbell asa.rand at gmail.com
Sat Aug 23 17:35:23 EDT 2014


This is the first time I've ever seen the original BASIC language. I had
given up hope of ever getting to see it decades ago. I am looking at it
now. As to whether or not I will try to place an entry depends. I have
never taken trig and have never used the trig functions in any of the BASIC
languages I have ever used. I know absolutely nothing about them. This
would make any attempt I make a guessing game, and would probably result in
ugly code. If the idea is to use all 15 statements and all 10 functions,
then I think I should refrain from the attempt.

That said, I do appreciate finally being able to see and study the original
original BASIC as developed at Dartmouth. Thanks Kip! :)

Wayne

On Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 2:18 AM, Kip Koon <computerdoc at sc.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi Basic Language Enthusiasts!
>
> During the August Meeting of the Glenside Color Computer Club, I suggested
> that the club present/demo the Dartmouth Time Sharing System Simulator
> during the CoCoFEST Back To Basics Conference in 2015.  As some of you
> probably know, two computer programmers who held PHDs in Computer Science
> invented the Basic All-purpose Symbol Instruction Code (BASIC) programming
> language at Dartmouth College on a GE-235 Mini-frame computer system and
> was
> first brought online one evening in May 1964.  DTSS is a simulator written
> by one of those creators of BASIC to simulate the actual environment the
> students at Dartmouth College used to get their coursework calculations
> done
> without having to study to become computer programmers - hence the name of
> the language.
>
> I also suggested during the Glenside Color Computer Club meeting that maybe
> we could hold a contest to see what kind of variety of BASIC programs could
> be created using only the 15 statements and 10 functions provided by this
> very early version of BASIC which runs on this DTSS Simulator.  Everyone at
> that meeting were very interested in this idea, so I'm putting out an
> Official ALL-CALL to EVERYONE in the Color Computer Community World Wide to
> participate in this contest even if you cannot attend.  Maybe everyone's
> programs will be able to be collected together in some form and shared at
> the CoCoFEST and be available for download from someone's web site.
>
> The simulator and all available information, manuals, etc. is available on
> the DTSS site at the link below.  If you are interested in participating in
> this contest or just want to see and experience the environment the
> Creators
> of the Basic Language programmed on and the students at Dartmouth College
> had to use, go download this simulator from the following web page.  Also
> at
> the bottom of the page, some of the ACTUAL Assembly Language Source Code
> that ran on the GE-235 computer for the BASIC Compiler has been preserved!
> Much of the mnemonics for the GE-235 computer look VERY SIMILAR to 6809
> Mnemonics!  It was so cool to be able to see this source code for what may
> very well be one of the most popular programming languages ever created!
>
> Link to the DTSS Simulator Web Page.  http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/#download
>
> These are the links for the software itself.  DTSS Simulator software for
> [Windows] <http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/DTSS-Win.zip>  and [Macintosh]
> <http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/DTSS-Mac.sit> .
>
> It is my hope that everyone who enjoys our beloved Cocos will at least
> consider this proposal and at some level participate in it.  This could
> turn
> out to be quite an interesting experience for us all!  Take care my
> friends.
>
>
>
>
> Kip Koon
>
>  <mailto:computerdoc at sc.rr.com> computerdoc at sc.rr.com
>
>  <http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon>
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
>
>  <http://computerpcdoc.com/> http://computerpcdoc.com/
>
>
>
>
> --
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> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>



-- 
Wayne

The Structure of I-Code
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/The_Structure_of_I-Code

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