[jussij]

In 1983 Turbo Pascal sold for about $50.00 meaning some 40 years later that price would be equivalent to about $250.00 given an inflation figure at about 3.5% per annum. By comparison, a very expensive IBM PC shipped with a free version of Microsoft BASIC burnt into the ROM.

[bluedino]

True, but by comparison Microsoft BASIC was, for lack of a better word, useless for anything serious.

Plus, don't forget hobbyists would 'borrow' software from each other, you'd get a free (possibly older version) of a compiler with a book...

I think I paid $69 for Turbo Pascal (spent all my birthday money in 1992), previous to that I had an old version of Microsoft Quick Pascal that was only $14.95 from Surplus Software. As well as Turbo C 1 that came with a book from SAMS publishing.