Re: Past Blast - "Wonder Woman 1984" - Corp Guy Using PET

On 4/4/25 3:11 PM, rbowman wrote:

On Fri, 4 Apr 2025 07:53:33 -0700, John Ames wrote:
 

On 4 Apr 2025 00:50:26 GMT rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
>

The version I bought was for CP/M. TBH I wasn't all that interested in
Pascal but I wanted to see what you could possibly get for $49.95.

>
That was the key: fast, usable, and *way* cheaper than anything else on
the market. (Microsoft C - really just a re-branded Lattice C - cost
*ten times as much,* the same year TP rolled out.) Whether Pascal was
your favorite programming language or not, that made a *big* difference
to scrappy independent developers and prospective enterpreneurs.

 Microsoft C 3.0 was a polished product for its day with printed manuals
and everything. GE paid for it so I don't know what it cost. Before they
got into Windows I thought of MS more as a tool provider, with MSDOS as an
afterthought. It was third party TSRs and, iirc, Quaterdeck's memory
manager that made DOS on an AT usable.

   Ah, I remember QEMM ... a big improvement, could
   actually use a LOT of RAM.
   The compilers offered by IBM/(M$) were very good.
   We kinda though of M$ as a hero company back then,
   all the good tools. Then .........
   As I recall ... there was 'C' and Pascal and FORTRAN
   along with a MASM. A BASIC compiler was also to be
   had (and I used it). Of course those were all the
   typical multi-pass compilers - two, three, four steps
   to get an executable of even a short simple pgm.
   BUT, they worked. Still have those in a DOS VM and
   mess with them from time to time.