It should be added, though, that the book and the programs weren’t originally for microcomputers. (Which is why there was a later Microcomputer Edition, after all.) The programs were written for, and on, timesharing systems with teletype UIs like the original Dartmouth BASIC machine and the many other microcomputers which ended up running a BASIC port. In fact my hunch is that it was this already-existing library of fun, understandable and reasonably short programs which made BASIC support a must for the Altair 8800 and its early imitators.
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