A reader asks: “Do you remember type-in programs from computer magazines in the 70s and 80s?”

Remember them? I wrote some! 🙂

In fact, I believe I wrote the first type-and-run program to appear in a non-computer, general-circulation magazine, at least in the US.

Back at the dawn of the PC era, I was a newly-hatched junior editor at New Shelter magazine; a general-circulation publication with 750,000 subscribers; covering things like alternative energy, eco-friendly home maintenance, and the like.

It wasn’t a computer magazine at all.

But after some wheedling, I convinced the editor to publish a type-and-run program as an experimental cover story. It was “experimental” because, to my knowledge, type-and-run programs had until then only appeared in special-interest (e.g. DIY/hobbyist/educational) publications.

So I wrote, and we published, a type-and-run program that let homeowners compare the finances of heating their homes with a variety of classic (e.g. fossil fuels) and alternative (e.g. wood or solar) heat sources.

It was all in glorious BASIC, optimized for two of the powerhouse PCs of the day, the Apple II and Atari 400/800. Both versions of the code were liberally peppered with REMs (non-executing REMarks) so readers (most of whom had never seen a computer program before) could see and understand what each line of code was doing.

Readers liked it. I loved it!

A short while later, I left New Shelter to join Popular Computing Magazine; from there to Byte Magazine, Windows Magazine, and others.

My whole career in computer tech started with that one little BASIC program — one that I believe really was the first type-and-run program to appear in a non-computer, general-circulation magazine in the US.

So yes: I remember type-and-run programs. 🙂

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