11 Facts About Acornsoft

Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron.

Acornsoft was formed in late 1980 by Acorn Computers directors Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry, and David Johnson-Davies, author of the first game for a UK personal computer and of the official Acorn Atom manual "Atomic Theory and Practice".

The article's author, Guy Kewney, and the magazine's editor, Jane Bird, argued that printing a software routine showing how to save Acornsoft cassette software to disk was a service to the magazine's readers.

Acornsoft became a subsidiary within Acorn Computer Group, distinct from Acorn Computers who were responsible for the development of Acorn's microcomputer systems, but Acornsoft ceased to operate as a separate company upon the departure of David Johnson-Davies in January 1986.

Acornsoft titles extended their consistent branding to the software's loading screens.

Related searches

Acornsoft produced a wide range of educational titles aimed at many different age groups.

Acornsoft published and distributed a range of educational software developed by ASK that were widely used in schools running BBC Micros.

Acornsoft distributed other ranges of educational programs developed by companies such as ICL, Good Housekeeping and Bourne but they are not considered part of the official catalogue.

Acornsoft produced a range of office software for home and business use.

Acorn systems came with a version of the BBC BASIC programming language as standard but Acornsoft produced a wide range of other languages that could be loaded in by cassette or disc or in some cases, supplied in ROM form.

Relative performance of some of Acornsoft's languages was evaluated using a benchmark based on the Takeuchi function, Tak by former Acornsoft managing director, David Johnson-Davies, noting that "it is difficult to imagine a language that performs badly on Tak being much use for anything", illustrating a diversity amongst these language implementations in terms of readability, speed and generated code size.