GW-Basic

[Eric Smith]

Scott wrote:
> Doesn't the GW in GW-Basic stand for Graphics Workstation?

I'm not sure that an official expansion was ever given.  Most references
claim it stands for "Gee Whiz" (one step beyond "Advanced" in "ABASIC" on
the PC).  A few people have claimed that it stands for "Gates, William",
but that seems dubious.

> Is MS-DOS really where the BASIC interpreter with this name originates?

That appears to be where the name originated, but the actual BASIC
interpreter is an evolution from the first Microsoft BASIC interpreter
for the 8086/8088, back in 1980.  Which is itself pretty closely related
to their 8080 BASIC interpreter, such as MBASIC 5.x on CP/M, which was
an evolution of their 4K Altair BASIC.

Eric