David H. Ahl | |
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.jpg) Ahl at theLiving Computer Museum in 2013 | |
| Born | (1939-05-17)May 17, 1939 |
| Occupation | Author |
David H. Ahl (born May 17, 1939) is an American author who is the founder ofCreative Computing magazine. He is also the author of manyhow-tobooks, includingBASIC Computer Games, the firstcomputer book to sell more than a million copies.[1]
After earning degrees inelectrical engineering andbusiness administration, while completing hisPh.D. ineducational psychology, Ahl was hired byDigital Equipment Corporation as amarketing consultant in 1969 to develop its educational products line. He editedEDU, DEC'snewsletter on educational uses of computers, that regularly published instructions for playingcomputer games onminicomputers. Ahl also talked DEC into publishing a book he had put together,101 BASIC Computer Games. During the 1973 recession, DEC cut back on educational product development and Ahl was dismissed.
Before he even received his last cheque, he was rehired into a DEC division dedicated to developing newhardware. This group became caught up in building acomputer that was smaller than any yet built, intending to bring the new product into new markets such as schools. DEC built a machine combining aPDP-8 with aVT50 terminal, and another that crammed aPDP-11 into a small portable chassis. When it was presented to DEC's Operations Committee, the engineering side loved it but the sales side was worried it would cut into the sales of their existing lines. The decision ultimately fell toKen Olsen, who finally stated that "I can't see any reason that anyone would want a computer of his own." With that, the project was dead.
Frustrated, Ahl left DEC in 1974, and startedCreative Computing, one of the earliest magazines covering themicrocomputer revolution.[2] For the next decadeCreative Computing covered the whole spectrum of hobbyist, home, and personal computing, and although Ahl sold the publication toZiff Davis in the early 1980s, he continued in his capacity as Editor-in-Chief.
After the end ofCreative Computing he publishedAtari Explorer andAtarian magazines for Atari as well as non-Computer-related magazines and newsletters.[3]
In 2010, David Ahl helped re-publish a Special 25th and 30th Anniversary Edition of two of his classic programming books, specifically for a newdevelopment environment for beginners, calledMicrosoft Small Basic.[4]
In June 2022, Ahl released everything he had ever written, from prose to software, into the public domain.[5]
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