Expensive Desk Calculator by Robert A. Wagner is thought to be computing's first interactive calculation program.

Alan Kotok Alan Kotok (November 9, 1941 – May 26, 2006) was an American computer scientist known for his work at Digital Equipment Corporation (Digital, or DEC) and at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Steven Levy, in his book '' Hackers: Heroes of th ...

(15 May 2006)
The Mouse That Roared: PDP-1 Celebration Event Lecture
Computer History Museum (Google Video link). Retrieved on 22 June 2006. Kotok's description begins at 1:02. The software first ran on the TX-0 computer loaned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Lincoln Laboratory. It was ported to the PDP-1 donated to MIT in 1961 by Digital Equipment Corporation. Friends from the MIT Tech Model Railroad Club, Wagner and a group of fellow students had access to these room-sized machines outside classes, signing up for time during off hours. Overseen by Jack Dennis, John McKenzie and faculty advisors, they were personal computer users as early as the late 1950s. The

calculators An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-size ...

Wagner needed to complete his numerical analysis homework were across campus and in short supply so he wrote one himself. Although the program has about three thousand lines of code and took months to write, Wagner received a grade of zero on his homework. His professor's reaction was, "You used a computer! This ''can't'' be right." Steven Levy wrote, "The professor would learn in time, as would everyone, that the world opened up by the computer was a limitless one."Steven Levy (1984). Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution () retrieved on 22 June 2006 a
Project Gutenbergp. 33
/ref>{{cite book , last = Levy , first = Steven , title = Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution , url = , date = 2 January 2001 , publisher = Penguin (Non-Classics) , isbn = 0-14-100051-1

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