[jpsb]

Yup, DOS by the way was a rip off (copy) of CPM. Not sure where basic came from but I do believe Bill Gates was a basic guru and that early versions of DOS were written in basic. I am pretty sure the world would have dropped basic long ago if Bill Gates did not keep forcing it on us. It is (or was) a terrible programming language. I haven't looked at it since C became popular so maybe it's been improved in the last 20 years or so, but it used to suck big time.

[GaltMeister]

IIRC, MS contracted with IBM to develop DOS. Somewhere along the line, IBM decided to ditch the Personal Computer, and more or less gave MS the rights to DOS.

The rest is history.

[billorites]

Not sure about the origins of CPM, but I do know that it was originally coded for input on paper tape which would make it probably 35+ years old.

Basic was written at Dartmouth over 40 years ago by Kemeny who went on to become President of Dartmouth College.

[billorites]

And COBOL was My baby!

[Bush2000]

[BASIC] is (or was) a terrible programming language. I haven't looked at it since C became popular so maybe it's been improved in the last 20 years or so, but it used to suck big time.

The latest versions of BASIC bear practically no resemblance to those early versions. VB.NET, for example, is completely object-oriented; in fact, it's so different that many old-timer VB developers complained. But it's become a pretty good language.