On Fri, May 03, 2024 at 02:51:06AM +0000, Just Kant via cctalk wrote: > BASICs available at bootup were nice, but really were only useful with 8 > bit micros. IBM ROM BASIC was hobbled until you ran BASICA from disk. And > if you had a floppy it only made sense to buy a cheap compiler (Quick > Basic, Turbo Basic, etc.). Whatever you were missing by not dropping > 4-500$ for a full product probably wasn't worth the expense.
A bit of perspective: the equivalent of $400-500 (~£200-250) was a couple of weeks salary in the UK at the time. Unless it could be written-off as a business expense, the purchase of that "cheap" compiler just wasn't happening.
