Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

But by then the possibility of making his own computer had materialized. He wentdown to Intel, maker of the first microprocessor, the 4004 chip, and offered towrite an assembler for it. He would take the parts to build a computer in exchangefor the job. Scrunching code like a master, he did a compact assembler, then wrotea debugger in exchange for more parts. The people at Intel began to send any 4004buyers who needed programming down to Tom. By the time he began going toHomebrew meetings, he had moved to San Jose, having built a considerableconsulting business to support himself and his wife, who accepted his computerfanaticism only grudgingly.While he was fascinated by the technological brotherhood of Homebrew, TomPittman was among those who never considered going into business as Bob Marshdid with Processor Technology. Nor did he think of working at any of thoseenergetic start-up firms. "I never hit it off with anyone there. The people didn'tknow me I'm a loner," he later said. "Besides, I don't have managerial skills. I'mmore a software person than an electronic engineer."But after the "software flap" caused by Bill Gates' letter, Pittman decided to takepublic action. "Gates was moaning about the ripens, and people were saying, 'Ifyou didn't charge $150, we'd buy it.' I decided to prove it." He had been followingthe Tiny BASIC news in Dr. Dobbs Journal, and understood the guidelines ofwriting a BASIC. And he noted that there were some new computers, competitorsto MITS, coming out that used the Motorola 6800 chip instead of the Intel 8080,and there was no BASIC interpreter written to work on them. So he decided towrite a 6800 Tiny BASIC interpreter and sell it for the sum of five dollars, afraction of the MITS price, to see if people would buy instead of stealing.Being a true hacker, Pittman was not satisfied with running just any kind of TinyBASIC: he was a captive of the beast he called "the creepy feature creature,"which stands behind the shoulder of every hacker, poking him in the back andurging, "More features! Make it better!" He put in things that some people thoughtimpossible in a "tiny" language like room to insert helpful remarks, and utilizationof a full command set. Inside of two months he had his interpreter running, and hegot lucky when he sold it to the AMI company for $3,500, on the condition thatthe sale be nonexclusive. He still wanted to sell it to hobbyists for five dollars ashot.He sent an ad to Byte magazine, and within days of its appearance he had fiftydollars in his mailbox. Some people sent in ten dollars or more, saying the fivewas too little. Some sent in five dollars with a note saying not to ship anything tothem they'd already copied it from a friend. Pittman kept sending them out. Hiscosts included twelve cents for the paper tape, and fifty cents for printing themanual he'd written. He would sit on the couch of his modest home at night,