from the April 1986 issue of PCM By Richard A. White An important question these days is what is BASIC’s place in the world of microcomputing? Over the past few years the IBM PC and its compatibles have arrived, followed by a vast outpouring of software of every description. Each machine comes with a BASIC language interpreter on its DOS disk. It is likely that only a small percentage of these interpreters have been loaded for the purpose of doing programming.

Charles David Tandy: 1918-1978 from the June 1979 issue of Electronics Australia Charles David Tandy, founder of the huge Radio Shack and Tandy chain of electronic stores, died recently at the age of 60. Just before his death, he had seen his Company’s annual turnover nudge the billion dollar mark — no mean accomplishment for someone who, as a child, had experienced the rigours of the great depression. by NEVILLE WILLIAMS

from the December 1962 issue of Computers and Automation A thoughtful and interesting look into the role of computers in the literature of fantasy and science fiction. Marcia Ascher Asst. Prof. of Math. and Physics Ithaca College Ithaca, N. Y. An editorial in a local newspaper (1) stated: “We are just at the beginning of the computer age. Who (but a science fiction writer) would venture to predict what lies ahead?

from the June 1, 1987 issue of MacWEEK by Michael Goodwin Why is Alan Boyd’s office like a hypertext document? Because it is hard to know where to look first. There is a high-powered Mac II work-alike (a Levco Prodigy with 4 Mbytes of RAM) driving a big, high-resolution screen displaying a complicated menu of a tour of the National Art Gallery. Next to that, a color TV monitor (displaying the Annunciation) is hooked to a videodisc player.

from the June 1, 1987 issue of MacWEEK by John Markoff Apple Computer Inc.’s next generation of computers may be based on a radically new microprocessor architecture that could improve performance dramatically over today’s Macintosh designs. Such computers would be built around microprocessors combining elements of both Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) and multiprocessor design onto a single silicon chip. Apple’s advanced development team is now at work using its Cray XMP supercomputer to simulate the design of the new chips.

from the December 1985 issue of Australian Personal Computer The Reduced Instruction Set Processor (RISC) era has begun, albeit quietly, and working examples are now appearing on the market. Dick Pountain examines three such processors. What exactly is a RISC, and why is it a good thing? A reduced instruction set processor, as the name suggests, is one which can execute only a small number of different instructions, compared to the prevailing standards of the day.

from the October 1994 issue of Byte magazine by PETER H. SALUS New Jersey, in the muggy summer of 1969, was the birthplace of Unix. It was born out of the frustration that resulted when AT&T’s BTL (Bell Telephone Labs) withdrew from the Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) project, a joint attempt by BTL, General Electric, and MIT to create an operating system for a large computer accommodating up to a thousand simultaneous users.

An interview with Bob Marsh from the December 1984 issue of Unix Review magazine Many factors have contributed to the birth of a personal UNIX market but none has been more important than Onyx System’s decision to introduce a UNIX-based micro in 1980. Bob Marsh, now chairman of Plexus Computers, made that decision. Chances are another company would have done the job sooner or later. But Marsh’s timing was critical. The success of the Onyx product showed not only that a UNIX micro port was technically feasible but commercially viable.

from the July 1985 issue of Unix World magazine by David Spencer Current third-generation languages such as C and FORTRAN will have to move aside at some point for a new family of fourth-generation languages. At 30 years old, FORTRAN is graying at the temples; third-generation programming languages are in their heyday. So you are probably wondering how we will speak to computers during the next decade. If current projections hold true, computers will seem (and talk) more like us fairly soon.

by Otis Wilson from the January 1985 issue of Unix Review magazine Thanks to the developers of the UNIX operating system, and to the research method at AT&T Bell Laboratories, the technical evolution of the UNIX System has been well documented and its history largely understood. From a technical perspective, there just isn’t much argument about who did what when and why things were done the way they were. On the other hand, the “business” history of the UNIX system is largely an oral one, rich in folklore and popularized by the modem press in hopes of finding some explanation for the phenomenon that is the UNIX system.