Tiny BASIC: An Early Free Software Project

BASIC was one of the first democratizing forces in computing. After its start in 1964 at Dartmouth College, it went on to become the preferred language of the 1970s personal computer revolution. Microsoft got its start making BASIC interpreters. But early computer users were not used to paying for software. A group of early personal computing hobbyists banded together to create Tiny BASIC, an open implementation of BASIC and a movement that encouraged others to contribute improvements and ports. One implementation of Tiny BASIC even coined the term "copyleft." Checkout Chapter 2 of Computer Science from Scratch and implement your own version of Tiny BASIC: https://computersciencefromscratch.com Checkout the code for the book's version of Tiny BASIC, known as NanoBASIC on GitHub: https://github.com/davecom/ComputerScienceFromScratch Checkout my prior video on the Smallest Possible Programming Language: https://youtu.be/QmXJK6tW1fI Checkout my podcast episode on the creation of BASIC: https://youtu.be/8Sjb29hgw_w Image Credits: Kemeny & Kurtz Dartmouth College Library https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/7/178/722 GE-225 Ed Thelen https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/GE225.html Teletype Model 33, Apple II, Commodore PET, TRS-80, IBM 5150, Rama & Musée CC By-SA 2.0 FR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33#/media/File:Teletype-IMG_7287.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II#/media/File:Apple_II-IMG_7064.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET#/media/File:Commodore_2001_Series-IMG_0448b.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80#/media/File:Radioshack_TRS80-IMG_7206.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer#/media/File:IBM_PC-IMG_7271_(transparent).png Altair 8800 Ed Uthman/Smithsonian CC By-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Altair_8800,_Smithsonian_Museum.jpg Gates & Allen 1979 Barry Wong/The Seattle Times Dennis Allison Dennis Allison/LinkedIn Intel 8080 The Science Museum UK CC By 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8080#/media/File:Intel_8080_open-closed.jpg MOS 6502 Dirk Oppelt CC By-SA 3.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6502#/media/File:MOS_6502AD_4585_top.jpg Zilog Z80 Gennadiy Shvets CC By-SA 2.5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_Z80#/media/File:Zilog_Z80.jpg Li Chen-Wang 2001 Suan Bradley CC By-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Chen_Wang#/media/File:Homebrew_Computer_Club_reunion_2001.jpg Richard Stallman, Commodore 64, and all other images Public Domain