Editing BASIC (section)

== Spread on minicomputers ==
[[File:ESO Hewlett Packard 2116 minicomputer.jpg|thumb|The HP 2000 system was designed to run time-shared BASIC as its primary task.]]

BASIC, by its very nature of being small, was naturally suited to porting to the [[minicomputer]] market, which was emerging at the same time as the time-sharing services. These machines had small [[main memory]], perhaps as little as 4&nbsp;KB in modern terminology,{{efn|Widely regarded as the first "true" mini, the PDP-8's 12-bit memory space allowed 4,096 address of 12-bits each, or 6,144 bytes.}} and lacked high-performance storage like [[hard drive]]s that make compilers practical. On these systems, BASIC was normally implemented as an interpreter rather than a compiler due to its lower requirement for working memory.{{efn|Interpreters are ultimately similar to compilers in the tasks they perform, converting source code to machine code, but differ in when they perform it. Compilers convert the entire program at once and output a separate runnable program. Interpreters generally convert only a single line at a time (or even just a portion of it) and then immediately release that code once the line has completed running. This means they require only enough memory to run a single line, and do not require some form of high-performance secondary memory like a hard drive.}}

A particularly important example was [[HP Time-Shared BASIC]], which, like the original Dartmouth system, used two computers working together to implement a time-sharing system. The first, a low-end machine in the [[HP 2100]] series, was used to control user input and save and load their programs to tape or disk. The other, a high-end version of the same underlying machine, ran the programs and generated output. For a cost of about $100,000, one could own a machine capable of running between 16 and 32 users at the same time.<ref name=ts>{{Cite web |url=https://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=411 |title= 2000 Timeshare System}}</ref> The system, bundled as the HP 2000, was the first mini platform to offer time-sharing and was an immediate runaway success, catapulting HP to become the third-largest vendor in the minicomputer space, behind [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] and [[Data General]] (DG).<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://hpmemoryproject.org/news/tenyears_comp/measure_page_00.htm |title= Passing the 10-year mark |magazine= MEASURE Magazine |date= October 1976 |publisher= Hewlett Packard}}</ref>

DEC, the leader in the minicomputer space since the mid-1960s, had initially ignored BASIC. This was due to their work with [[RAND Corporation]], who had purchased a [[PDP-6]] to run their [[JOSS]] language, which was conceptually very similar to BASIC.<ref>{{cite tech report |title=The JOSS Years: Reflections on an experiment |last=Marks |first=Shirley |date=December 1971 |publisher=Rand |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2008/R918.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2008/R918.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> This led DEC to introduce a smaller, cleaned up version of JOSS known as [[FOCAL (programming language)|FOCAL]], which they heavily promoted in the late 1960s. However, with timesharing systems widely offering BASIC, and all of their competition in the minicomputer space doing the same, DEC's customers were clamoring for BASIC. After management repeatedly ignored their pleas, [[David H. Ahl]] took it upon himself to buy a BASIC for the [[PDP-8]], which was a major success in the education market. By the early 1970s, FOCAL and JOSS had been forgotten and BASIC had become almost universal in the minicomputer market.<ref>{{cite interview |first=Kevin |last=Savetz |date=April 2013 |title=Dave Ahl and Betsy Ahl |url=https://computingpioneers.com/index.php?title=Dave_Ahl_and_Betsy_Ahl}}</ref> DEC would go on to introduce their updated version, [[BASIC-PLUS]], for use on the [[RSTS/E]] time-sharing operating system.

During this period a number of simple [[text-based game]]s were written in BASIC, most notably Mike Mayfield's ''[[Star Trek (text game)|Star Trek]]''. David Ahl collected these, some ported from FOCAL, and published them in an educational newsletter he compiled. He later collected a number of these into book form, ''101 BASIC Computer Games'', published in 1973.<ref name="basicgames">{{Cite book|url=http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/|title=101 Basic computer games|last=Ahl|first=David H.|date=1973|publisher=Creative Computing Press|location=Morristown, N.J. |language=en|oclc=896774158}}</ref> During the same period, Ahl was involved in the creation of a small computer for education use, an early [[personal computer]]. When management refused to support the concept, Ahl left DEC in 1974 to found the seminal computer magazine, ''[[Creative Computing (magazine)|Creative Computing]]''. The book remained popular, and was re-published on several occasions.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Ahl|first=David H.|date=May 11, 1981|title=Computer Games|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cz4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44|magazine=[[InfoWorld]]|issn=0199-6649|volume=3|issue=9|page=44}}</ref>