myke predko wrote:
>
> Tim Kerby wrote:
> >>
> >> Do parallax use a c54 on the stamp or another processor?  Is the command
> >> set copyrighted - i notice the picstic is a direct copy.  Can I make these
> >> things?  What is the cheapest available?
>
> Don McKenzie wrote:
> >They use a PIC16C56/XT/P
> >
> >If commands like gosub and goto were copyright material, Bill Gates
> >would never have got his first version of basic (as we know it) going
> >some 20 plus years ago. It's a little like trying to copyright the
> >alphabet.
>
> Don, be careful of what you think is and isn't patented.
>
> The thing I was *always* amazed at being patented is the cursor on a screen.
> IBM patented it and I don't think the patent has run out yet (I think it was
> granted in the late '70s).
>
> Motorola didn't think there was a patent and ended up getting nailed in a
> very expensive out of court settlement because they designed a chip with a

snip---- snip----

Yes, I hear what you are saying here Myke, however I doubt if you can
group a set of Computer Language Instructions, namely Basic, into the
same class.

Basic was created at MIT and Bell labs and expanded on by Keremy and
Kurtz and introduced to their students at Dartmouth on the 1st of March
1964. This was the first public appearance of 'READY>'.

Gates and Allen (not to be confused with Burns and Allen);-) wrote an
updated version in 1975 for the MITS Altair. Gates went on to write
Microsoft Basic that appeared in the ROMs of over 50 different machines
to become a defacto standard.

At about same time, other Basic Authors included LiChen Wang (Tiny
Basic, I did a later Z80 version of this that I called Z8TBasic), Steve
Leininger (Radio Shack level I), Steve Wozniak (Apple Integer Basic),
and Gordon EuBanks (Basice and CBasic).

Now if there is a Copyright infringment on the Basic Language Commands,
then surely all the above people must tbe guilty. And this was all
before 1980.

As the Parallax Stamp Commands are an extension of the original Basic,
perhaps they could be as guilty as myself and Bill Gates. :)

Don McKenzie  don@dontronics.com   http://www.dontronics.com

SLI, the serial LCD that auto detects baud rates from 100 to 125K bps.
SimmStick(tm) A PIC proto PCB the size of a 30 pin Simm Memory Module.
Covers all versions of the PIC16cxx family plus the Atmel AT89C2051.