Li-Chen Wang

Dr. Li-Chen Wang (1936 - ) wrote "Palo Alto Tiny BASIC" for Intel 8080-based microcomputers. This was the fourth version of Tiny BASIC that appeared in "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia", but probably the most influential. It appeared in the May 1976 Vol 1, No. 5 issue, [cite journal | last =Wang | first =Li-Chen | title =Palo Alto Tiny BASIC | journal = Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia, Running Light Without Overbyte. | volume =1 | issue =5 | pages =12–25 | date =May 1976 Source code begins with the following six lines. TINY BASIC FOR INTEL 8080; VERSION 1.0; BY LI-CHEN WANG; 10 JUNE, 1976; @COPYLEFT; ALL WRONGS RESERVED ] and distinguished itself from other versions of Tiny BASIC through a novel means of abbreviating commands to save memory, and the inclusion of an array variable ("@"). The interpreter occupied 1.77 kilobytes of memory and assumed the use of a TTY for user input/output.

An erratum to the original article appeared in the June/July issue of "Dr. Dobb's" (Vol. 1, No 6.) This article also included information on adding additional I/O devices, using code for the "VDM" video display by Processor Technology as an example.

Dr. Wang also wrote a "STARTREK" program in his Tiny BASIC that appeared in the July, 1976 issue of the "People's Computer Company" newsletter.

The original prototype TRS-80 Model I that was demonstrated for Charles Tandy to sell the idea ran Li-Chen's BASIC. [Welsh, David and Welsh, Theresa Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiansts Helped Spark the PC Revolution p. 7, Copyright © 2007]

Dr. Wang's mark also shows up in and on the Exatron Stringy floppy ROM for the TRS-80 Model I. According to Embedded Systems columnist Jack W. Crenshaw, Li-Chen's Manchester encoding code, achieving 14K read/write speeds, is a "work of art." [http://www.embedded.com/98/9806pt.htm]

In 2001 Dr. Wang was re-elected for a 2nd term as chair of the Infrared Data Association's Technical and Test committee. In 2004 Dr. Wang was employed as Chief Technical Officer at ACTiSYS in Fremont, CA focused on IR/mobile products.

References

External links

* General:
** [http://www.nicholson.com/rhn/files/tinybasic.tar.Z Li-Chen Wang's Tiny Basic Source Code for Intel 8080 Version 1.0]
** [http://www.actisys.com/article.html Introduction to IrDA by Yeh & Wang on the Actisys site]