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Greg Whitten is an American computer engineer, investor, and car collector.

Whitten graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in mathematics in 1973 and from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in applied mathematics in 1978.

He worked for Compucolor, a company in Georgia established in 1977 that made the home computer Compucolor II (an early PC), but went out of business in 1983. While there, he reputedly optimized an unlicensed copy of Microsoft BASIC so effectively that Microsoft later forgave Compucolor for their infringement in exchange for the rights to the enhancements.

Tenure at Microsoft (1979-1998)

Whitten worked for Microsoft from 1979 to 1998. He developed the standards for the company's BASIC compiler line.[1]

"GW" in the name of the GW-BASIC dialect (first released in 1983) of BASIC developed by Microsoft may have come from Greg Whitten's initials:

"The GW-BASIC name stands for Gee-Whiz BASIC. The GW- name was picked by Bill Gates. He is the one who knows whether it was Gee-Whiz or after me because it has been used both ways. I did set the directions for the BASIC language features after joining the company in 1979.

- Greg Whitten, 13 April 2005 [1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gregory Whitten (2005-04-13). "GW-BASIC". Retrieved 2008-06-29. 

External links



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