[cctalk] Re: Microsoft 50 years

On 31/01/2025 18:19, Christian Liendo via cctalk wrote: My early Microsoft story. I noticed a problem in Microsoft 6502 BASIC 1.0 rev 3.2 (I saw the banner every day!) supplied by OSI in ROM. Basically after using string arrays for while the machine hung, with the screen "twitching", requiring a reset and warm start. It looked like the garbage collector. I called OSI and they told me to call this number Microsoft as they'd heard about this before. This was in 1978. This was a really expensive transatlantic phone call. I got through and asked to speak to someone about their ROM BASIC.... "No, it wasn't a Commodore PET and I was directed their by OSI." After an expensive wait I got through to a friendly chap who vaguely knew of the issue. Apparently when it was ported to the 6502 the string length became two bytes instead of one and this may have broken it. Unfortunately Rick, the guy who did the 6502 port wasn't around and they guy I was talking to had done the 8080 version. Realising I was talking to someone useless, and the call was costing a bomb, I cut things short (politely) and hung up. It turns out it was Richard Wieland who did the 6502 port. So who did I hang up on?