Timeline for How to get started writing C for the IBM PC in 1980-81
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2017 at 2:07 | comment | added | Leo B. | @ChrisR In 1981 there were videoterminals even in the Soviet Union. Granted, also at 300 Baud in most installations (e. g. Moscow State University), but personally I was lucky with 1200 at the Academy of Sciences Computing Centre. I would assume that in the West at the same time videoterminals would be at least as accessible. | |
| Jun 30, 2017 at 17:11 | comment | added | ChrisR | @Leo B - We all ran TI Silent 700s or Olivetti paper based Teletype machines at either 300 or (if you were licky) 1200Baud into the bureaus. On IBM it was golf balls. Videoterminal? That would have been heaven | |
| Jun 28, 2017 at 7:07 | comment | added | sendmoreinfo | PC BIOS was cross-assembled using Intel's ASM86 (os2museum.com/wp/the-ibm-pc-bios-and-intel-isis-ii) -- | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 7:29 | comment | added | Leo B. | @rwallace I believe that it was possible to buy some CPU time at night for a reasonable price from academic or maybe even commercial entities using remote access, if one had a videoterminal and a modem and lived in an area where a call to the provider would be local, therefore free. | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 6:51 | comment | added | rwallace | @manassehkatz Perhaps! | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 6:32 | comment | added | manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact | @rwallace - Perhaps an alternate history where Microsoft doesn't take over the world? | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 5:52 | comment | added | rwallace | @LeoB. Okay, in this case the people involved (protagonists in alternate history fiction) are running a startup company, they are tight on capital so they don't have ready access to expensive equipment. Some form of academic partnership might perhaps be possible. | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 5:36 | comment | added | manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact | I don't have time to really search now, but there were probably some viable C compilers for CP/M systems. Even starting with an 8-bit (e.g., Z80) CP/M system would have gotten you close to the environment of the IBM PC at a reasonable price. | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 5:33 | comment | added | Leo B. | @rwallace You may want to clarify your question, then. One could assume that a person who would need to program for the IBM PC a year before its release and had selected C as the tool for the job, would likely be in an academic or industrial setting with ready access to mainframes or minis. | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 5:27 | comment | added | rwallace | Yes, that could very well be a way to go. But a minicomputer like the PDP-11 is pretty expensive, isn't it, like five-digit price tag? What's the cheapest computer that can be used that way at that time? | |
| Jun 27, 2017 at 5:22 | history | answered | Leo B. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |