[dba-Tech] "Computer Connections: People, Places, and Events in the Evolution of the Personal Computer Industry."

[Arthur Fuller]

I still remember the date on which I purchased my first computer:
15-Mar-1983. It was a Taiwanese clone of an Apple II  called Unitron, and
the guy I bought it from had installed a CP/M card, I think from a company
whose name began with Z but I don't think it was Zenith. Anyway, I bought
the computer used, and it came with no hard disk (it was 1983), just a pair
of floppy drives that each could store a whopping 128k of data. The box
came with several disks, including WordStar, dBASE-II and Supercalc. I
hated Apple SOS 3 and vastly preferred the C/PM side. I fell in love with
dBASE-II and discovered a really cool trick wherein you could another notch
into the opposing side of the 5.5" disk, and then copy stuff to the newly
exposed side. So, in my basement way, I invented multi-tasking, on a 64k
box. I had WordStar on one side of the disk, and dBASE-II on the other. I
used to run WordStar to write code, then select Run from its menu, quickly
flip the disk in its floppy drive, and then type "Do". It was the trend
back then to shorten dBASE-II to "Do"; hence.

None of this and my subsequent career would have been possible without Gary
Kildall, the creator of CP/M, whose memoirs
<http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/geek-life/history/cpm-creator-gary-kildalls-memoirs-released-as-free-download>
are
now available just back there, at the link.nine words previous. It brought
back a flood of memories.

-- 
Arthur