BASIC creators John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. The mainframe isn’t the only technology hitting the ripe old age of 50 this year. On May 1st, the BASIC programming language, first developed by Dartmouth ...

Knowing how to program a computer is good for you, and it’s a shame more people don’t learn to do it. For years now, that’s been a hugely popular stance. It’s led to educational initiatives as ...

Nowadays, "basic" has a very different and derogatory Urban Dictionary-style meaning. Fifty years ago on this very day, however, it was the name given to a new computer-programming language born in a ...

LIKE BOING BOING BUT NOT THE ADS? CLICK HERE TO GO AD-FREE! In his long and illustrious career as a mathematician and computer scientist, Thomas Eugene Kurtz achieved many things. But most important ...

Thomas Kurtz, the Dartmouth professor who co-created the computer language BASIC and the networking system DTSS with John Kemeny, helping launch the computer revolution, has died. He was 96. Kurtz was ...