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 influental. It appeared in the May 1976 Vol 1, No. 5 issue, 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 1.77KBytes 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 People's Computer Company.