Woz HP BASIC
Comment from E-mail
When Apple moved from the Apple ][ line to the Mac line, where and why was the decision to move to a closed architecture? I thought that Apple suitors were the hobbyist and as such would have more of a hardware/software development contribution… In reflection on programming graphics with peek and poke, I was wondering why an interpreted language rather than a compiled language was developed. Was this the Microsoft DEC BASIC vs. Woz HP BASIC approach we discussed previously?
Woz
The closed architecture was in line with attempts to bring computers down to less technical people. Does the phrase “for the rest of us” ring a bell. Although that phrase referred to the way the software worked, there was a strong feeling that some people were turned off by too much visible technology. There might have been personal reasons within Apple to minimize the technology aspect, since the technology emphasis came largely from me and not the other Apple execs. I don’t feel that it was a good or needed thing to restrict access like this. Even the designers wanted more access and at least a “test” port but Steve Jobs nixed that.
I’d never written a computer language or studied writing one. I’d also never used BASIC, only FORTRAN and ALGOL and a number of machine languages. But it was clear that BASIC was the best language for an early home computer because of the ease of learning and using it and the many games available in BASIC. So I pulled out an HP manual and wrote my syntax diagrams based on that. It was a little different, mainly with strings, than the DEC BASIC.
I always understood that FORTRAN could be compiled but BASIC was an interpreted language. It’s late and I’m not sure why BASIC has to be interpreted but an easy language for small programs is quicker to use when you can enter new lines and run them right away without compiling. It also takes less RAM. We didn’t even have a floppy disk then.