Thomas E. Kurtz (born 1928) is an American computer scientist who co-created BASIC with John Kemeny. His commitment to making computing accessible shaped computer education for generations.
Creating BASIC
At Dartmouth, Kurtz and Kemeny created BASIC to make programming accessible to all students. Kurtz led much of the implementation work, developing the language and its environment.
Dartmouth Time Sharing System
Kurtz helped develop DTSS, which allowed many students to use computers interactively. The combination of BASIC and time-sharing made computing accessible without waiting for batch processing.
Philosophy
Kurtz believed computing should be:
- Accessible to non-specialists
- Interactive and immediate
- Educational, not just vocational
- Available to all students, not just scientists
True BASIC
In 1983, Kurtz and Kemeny created True BASIC, a modern BASIC implementation maintaining educational principles. They wanted to preserve BASIC’s accessibility while adding structured programming features.
Legacy
Kurtz continues to advocate for computing education. His work with Kemeny showed that programming languages could be designed for learners, not just experts.