HANOVER, NH — The computer language known as Basic — short for Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code — turned 44 years old May 1st.A child of necessity, Basic was conceived by two Dartmouth College professors who in 1956 began seeking code that would be easier than Fortran or Algol for neophyte programmers to learn and use. After several abortive attempts that included Dartmouth Simplified Code (DARSIMCO) and Dartmouth Oversimplified Programming Experiment (DOPE), John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz ran their first successful Basic program on the college’s GE225 mainframe computer in the pre-dawn hours of May Day 1964. Students loved the invention, and so did everyone else.

“It turned out that easy-to-learn-and-use was also a good idea for faculty members, staff members and everyone else,” Kurtz wrote later.

Much later — in 1975, to be exact — Bill Gates and Paul Allen adopted the language for personal computers. Basic remains widely used today, not only to teach programming, but also as a basic compiler language.

Kemeny and Kurtz didn’t stop with revolutionizing computing, however. Later in 1964, they developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System, or DTSS, which similarly revolutionized batch-processing by simplifying the process and shortening wait times between successive debugging runs.

Kemeny went on to serve as president of Dartmouth from 1970-1981. He is credited with introducing coeducation to the traditionally all-male school in 1972.