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CBASIC (1970)

When Kemeny and Kurtz developed BASIC, they did not patent or protect their invention in any way. This enabled the growth and differentiation of BASIC dialects. Around 1970, Gordon Eubanks Jr. developed BASIC-E while pursuing his Masters at the Naval Postgraduate School, under the suggestion of Gary Kildall. BASIC-E translated to an intermediate code — similar to what Java later used — allowing programmers to sell software in intermediate form without revealing their source code.

During this time, Eubanks also met Alan Cooper and Keith Parsons, who were keen on starting a software company. Since Eubanks had kept BASIC-E in the public domain, he gave them a copy of the source code.

The Second Wind

Eubanks, Cooper, and Parsons met again in 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire. The trio decided to work together on another BASIC project. It was an all-night affair — sitting until three in the morning in Cooper's place in Vallejo, drinking Cokes, poring over listings, and deciding what statements to put in the language. Sometimes the selection was less than scientific:

"Why don't you put a WHILE loop in?" Eubanks would answer, "Sounds good to me," and in it would go.

The result was CBASIC — a more structured, procedural BASIC designed to reduce "spaghetti code." Unlike BASIC-E, CBASIC was commercial and sold for $100. It was an immediate success. It helped mature the software industry from a hobby domain into a real business — software was no longer something to share freely, but a product people would pay for.