Microsoft Goes Back to BASIC, Open-Sources Bill Gates' Code
Posted by Top-Figure7252@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 164 comments
Posted by Top-Figure7252@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 164 comments
diamond@reddit
Is there even anything like BASIC today? Back in the 80s, if you were a young nerd with a computer, you could sit down and start banging out code in BASIC. It wouldn't do much, probably wouldn't work at all for a little while until you figured a few things out. But overall it was pretty simple to get started and get to the point where you could say "Wow, I wrote a program!" And that enthusiasm would carry you along to the next step, and the next, and the next...
What's the closest equivalent today? Everyone has computers now of course, but is there an equally simple way for a young kid to start writing code that would give them a sense of accomplishment pretty quickly?
liveyourcode@reddit
Python
even more than JS (because of its expressiveness)
and even more than Scratch, cause Scratch is for learning how to program, whereas basic (and python) was/is used for production software as well
not_a_novel_account@reddit
Python
topological_rabbit@reddit
Python is absolutely the replacement for BASIC. Seems easy up front, runs on just about everything, and teaches a lot of bad habits while being annoyingly slow.
And I say this as someone who wrote BASIC as a kid starting in the third grade. I wanted to dive into ASM, but I couldn't get my hands on any video system references for my PCjr so BASIC was the only way I could do graphics of any kind. I wasn't able to make much progress until the internet hit and I could finally get all the information I needed.
VeryOldGoat@reddit
What bad habits does it teach?
ammar_sadaoui@reddit
there no interpreted languages that is slow
your potatoes pc is just old
knome@reddit
lol, python is dog slow
determineduncertain@reddit
Comparatively, yes they are slow. I wrote something in Python once and then rewrote it in Go to benefit purely from the speed increase. I’m not alone in seeing that kind of difference that’s meaningful.
Thaurin@reddit
I dove into 6502 ASM on the Commodore 64 using a Power Cartridge. I didn't have access to an assembler, so it was all without labels, variables, and whatever. So it was very hard to do and mostly it stayed with ripping routines from various demos and seeing how they worked and if I could use them and change them in my own stuff.
I really wish I had the documentation and books for it back then!
church-rosser@reddit
🏆🏆🏆
Antagonyzt@reddit
Python, JavaScript, ruby
pacopac25@reddit
Lua. To program Minecraft.
Kamiien@reddit
You mean roblox? Or you mean a minecraft mod, because im pretty sure you cant program lua in minecraft
ajacksified@reddit
I LOVE LUA. My friend and I wrote the biggest testing framework for Lua https://luarocks.org/modules/lunarmodules/busted, although since we left it in more capable hands.
neo_nl_guy@reddit
Thanks, I'm a qa guy learning Lua , right now for pico 8
QuerulousPanda@reddit
Lua's a great language for certain uses but i honestly don't think it's that great a beginner language. It's a bit too freeform and forgiving, it's too easy to end up in some kind of strange mess where you kinda muddled your way into something mostly working but then you hit a brick wall that you can't really back out of.
neo_nl_guy@reddit
Lua as well. It has a very limited and clear syntax. So you don't spend all your time learning about all the language. Once you learn it, it becomes easy to move to Ruby or Pyhon. It's dynamic typing, with tables as the cornerstone for data. It's more designed to allow a scripting language for an api , such as a game engine. I'm learning it for doing work in pico8
EthanThatOneKid@reddit
QB64 (r/qb64) is a cross-platform toolchain for building BASIC applications, while maintaining the 80s vibes you remember. I’ve been coming back to it for 10+ years and it’s fun to learn as a beginner programming language.
diamond@reddit
Oh that's cool!
InternationalMany6@reddit
Python?
omniuni@reddit
I actually think the closest equivalent is probably BASH.
CyberEd-ca@reddit
I would say that Scratch is that at least for children.
manoftheking@reddit
Ironically for me it was TI-BASIC that runs on my TI-84. Got some games from classmates, one day accidentally opened the code instead of executing, spent a lot of math classes making tweaks and learning to program.
TeamDman@reddit
I've been working on SuperFactoryManager for a while now, it's a Minecraft mod that adds a DSL for logistics. It's in some popular modpacks so it's easily accessible as an introduction to programming and computational thinking
edave64@reddit
JS
Comes for free with every browser, and it's pretty easy to get something interactive running.
Although sadly the file protocol was significantly nerfed for some security stuff and you can't use esmodules with it. So a lot of the time you need some kind of server.
coyoteelabs@reddit
The simplest and easiest would be a RAD IDE. For example: Delphi or Lazarus/FreePascal. Place components, add a bit of code to events and you have a working program. Syntax is almost pseudo code.
robertcrowther@reddit
There's also Scratch (i.e. Smalltalk), can get a version of that for Android.
Philipp@reddit
Lua, Python, JS...
If you know the weaknesses of ChatGPT, you can even get careful guided mentoring with that on any beginner issue. Those weaknesses can and should be taught.
tekanet@reddit
I’ve always seen Basic as the way for non-CS people to write programs.
So the natural successor is Python, as it took this “mission” even further.
plastikmissile@reddit
Nothing that's completely equivalent. Computing as a whole has changed completely from the 80s, when home computers were designed with BASIC in mind and came with a programming manual packaged in.
There are however apps and languages that are targeted at young kids like Scratch. They're very "closed garden" but that's the nature of computing these days.
Frequent-Complaint-6@reddit
Without BASIC nothing would happen the way it is now. BASIC was far from perfect but is the most influential programming language ever! It gave computing to everybody.
hackingdreams@reddit
[citation needed].
(That language is universally agreed to be the C language; its syntax is fucking everywhere, still.)
yopla@reddit
BASIC made me the programmer I am today. I don't know if that's good or bad but my introduction to coding was retyping basic listings from our Amstrad computer handbook and various magazines when I was 10.
Then I started wondering what would happen if I changed a 1 by a 10 and when I realized it made the bullet of the space invader like ship so much more powerful I understood that with code comes great powers (and very little responsibilities) and that it should be my career or at least my hobby until little ne understood the concept of "a job".
It's only much later that I realized that my power was actually limited at 32767, but it was too late to turn around.
fyndor@reddit
Yea I don’t know if it was making my own QuickBasic Nibbles levels or the school fight song, but these experiments in GW and QBasic put me on the path that gave me a career.
mr_dfuse2@reddit
haha
benzo_diazepenis@reddit
Hm…whabout C
Royal-Ninja@reddit
C was influential to programming language design, BASIC was influential in its accessibility to previous non-programmers. Many, many people learned to program on machines that came with BASIC.
phoenix1984@reddit
C gave computing to the computer science majors
BufferUnderpants@reddit
Steve Ballmer didn't die for this
I can't read 6502 assembly, but I appreciate how painstakingly documented the source is, BASIC was derided as an entry level programming language at the time, but Bill Gates took his product very seriously.
adjudicator@reddit
Back when actual engineers (P. Eng., not the modern American misapplication of the label) and mathematicians were the only programmers, an entry-level language was a great idea if you actually wanted to sell computers.
hackingdreams@reddit
One of the worst takes and a complete misapprehension of history.
I suggest looking into the history of computer programmers, just to see how awful and heinously wrong this take is.
psymunn@reddit
I worked at a structural engineering software company in the early 2000s. The engineers there were all happily using Fortran. Apparently it's still a pretty decent way of working with big matrices without a lot of programming knowledge.
valarauca14@reddit
Most engineers don't realize that Matlab is nearly Fortran. Even before LLMs were a thing there was a laundry list of tools that would do a kindof-okay job translating your Matlab into Fortran.
DoNotMakeEmpty@reddit
IIRC Fortran is among the fastest languages, beating every other language including C and C++ in number crunching, while Matlab is not
Immotommi@reddit
It doesn't beat them on number crunching if code is written properly. This is a common misconception. Any compiled language without a garbage collector should run the equivalent computation at the same speed if the code is written properly.
The caveat here is that it can be awkward to get languages like rust and Fortran down to that speed as you have to convince the compiler that you don't need bounds checking
DoNotMakeEmpty@reddit
Nope. Some of the optimizations are simply not possible due to language semantics in some languages. C++ just cannot reliably state aliaslessness while FORTRAN and Rust can easily do so thanks to their design. C is in between with
restrict(which was added only to have speed on par with FORTRAN) but it may not be enough.Both Rust and FORTRAN consistently outperform C and C++. It is the opposite, you usually cannot convince the compiler about how you can use data in C and C++, making them slower. The constraints Rust and FORTRAN impose on your code make the output code faster.
InlineSkateAdventure@reddit
This is true, we used it in the power industry for real time stuff and nothing is faster. Matlab is not really about performance. Its strength is the toolbox of complex shit it can do and the interface.
Thog78@reddit
The core tools in matlab (like, inversing matrices, fourier transforms, large matrix products etc) are written in C/C++ and highly optimized by some of the best in the field.
In case some people here imagine tools like matrix products in matlab are written in basic matlab code. Absolutely not.
That's the whole strength of matlab. If you crunch large pile of numbers in the form of matrices, matlab is gonna be faster than non-optimized C code, because matlab is highly optimized C code plus a bit of overheads.
axonxorz@reddit
MATLAB was originally written in Fortran. It was rewritten in C in the 80s and they started using LINPACK and EISPACK C libraries for linear algebra. LINPACK/EISPACK was replaced in 2000 with...a Fortran-based library lol.
Thog78@reddit
OK I had to reread a bit on these things and the truth appears to be close to what we were saying but still a bit different: Matlab is currently written in C, and uses LAPACKE, which is a highly optimized C library that itself is a wrapper of the highly optimized Fortran library LAPACK.
So indeed under the hood matlab is C and C is Fortran. Pretty interesting and cool tbh.
NoleMercy05@reddit
Agree 100%. Matlab often has faster dev iteration cycle and visualizations, depending on problem of course. So it does provide high value to certain use cases.
DoNotMakeEmpty@reddit
So, it isn't FORTRAN. FORTRAN is much much faster to run and Matlab is faster to develop and they are not very good at each other's strengths, so their usage cases differ. Comment OP said Matlab and FORTRAN are pretty much the same, but they are simply not.
spider-mario@reddit
They can be very similar as languages, with the few differences still having significant implications on implementation performance. A bit like Ruby vs. Crystal for example.
mszegedy@reddit
i think what they meant is that they are closely related to one another in terms of development history and underlying structure. i'm just not sure what the extent of the claim is beyond "matlab is based on linpack/lapack", which is no secret.
audentis@reddit
Matlab is 1-indexed. It hurt me.
QuaternionsRoll@reddit
So is Fortran
Foreign-Capital287@reddit
So is linear algebra.
Immotommi@reddit
Fortran is compiled and with modern compilers and decently written code, it will be just as fast as C/C++ for handling arrays.
In modern Fortran (f90, 77 is much less ergonomic) you don't have to worry about pointers. Multidimensional arrays are first class citizens. Mathematical operators are appropriately overloaded. Functions can be defined as pure and elemental meaning they can be called on full arrays and you get element by element automatically.
All of this makes the language very ergonomic for mathematical computation. There are flaws like the need to disable implicit typing, strings are awkward, and others but Fortran gets a lot of flak that it doesn't deserve
grimgroth@reddit
My dad is a physicist (now retired) and they use Fortran for calculations
bureX@reddit
The non P. Eng hippies were the ones who broughts us the computer revolution.
FourKrusties@reddit
What is a p. Eng?
Suppafly@reddit
professional, I believe. engineering used to be gatekept, similar to how it is in canada still.
dbwood3@reddit
That is absolutely not true. No one knew what a coder was then. My mother was hired by IBM as a programmer in 1968. Back then they figured her masters in English would allow her to write code.
She had a successful career in Tech.
adjudicator@reddit
I ought to have said “early CS departments were a mishmash of EE and mathematicians”
Global-Biscotti-8449@reddit
BASIC was revolutionary for its time. It made programming accessible to millions and shaped the entire home computer era
dx__@reddit
I remember being barely 10 years old in the mid 90s and using it to build a lawnmower game. It changed my life
Rockola_HEL@reddit
So much so that I’m struggling to recall a 8-bit home computer that had some other (non-assembly) language instead.
kamomil@reddit
HyperCard should have been bigger than it was
richardathome@reddit
Only one I can recall is the Jupiter Ace ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Ace ) - Came with Forth instead of BASIC.
CyberEd-ca@reddit
Oh, Gates was a P. Eng.?
adjudicator@reddit
No need to be obtuse. Early CS was a mishmash of ECE and math faculty.
Haplo12345@reddit
Steve Ballmer didnt die for anything; he's still alive.
BufferUnderpants@reddit
It’s an old meme, a riff on people saying “Socrates didn’t die for this” or some such over something relatively minor, like getting censored on Reddit over low-stakes issues like gamergate
jorgesgk@reddit
Yeah wtf
EntroperZero@reddit
6502 is my favorite assembly language. It's easy to understand because of how limited it is.
falconfetus8@reddit
The idea that people would deride it for being entry-level saddens me.
kamomil@reddit
I mean it's on-brand for computer nerds IMO.
Dizzy2046@reddit
open source give more flexibility to user to customize according to user as i am using dograh ai for sales automation + seamless CRM integration
girt-by-sea@reddit
Didn't he buy the interpreter? Bundled it along with their version of CP/M. That's my memory of it.
ImAtWorkKillingTime@reddit
No, in fact they wrote an intel 8080 emulator and developed the first version of microsoft basic for the Altair 8800 on a pdp-10 (or 11) at Harvard. There's the famous nerd legend of Paul Allen writing the boot loader with pen and paper while on the flight to meet with the guys at Mits.
garyk1968@reddit
No they wrote the interpreter, they bought QDOS from Seattle Computer Products which became MS-DOS.
ShinyHappyREM@reddit
yep
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
Bill Gates at the time:
Way to finally come around and see the value of open source 🙄 the hobbyists finally won I guess.
And it's a little ironic to finally open source it, because the Altair BASIC debacle was almost like the invention of non-open source software. Back then, there weren't words for "free (as in speech) software" nor "open source" because it was just presumed that once the software's in your hands you can examine it, modify it, or share it, which is all open source means.
Still hate microsoft, still hate Bill Gates.
emperor000@reddit
Can you really not differentiate now from several decades ago? There wasn't any way to make money from software without people buying it back then. Now there is. Do you see the difference?
Except that the things they did back then that you don't like paved the way for/produced/necessitated the things today that you do like...
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
Back then, software wasn't seen as a way to make money. Programmers were users and users were programmers. It was companies like microsoft that introduced the idea that software on its own should be a commercial product. The university and military researchers that made the biggest innovations were just sharing their work freely.
How exactly did a BASIC interpreter for a home computer nobody except niche enthusiasts used "pave the way" for the invention of the Apple II? I've read Steve Wozniak's autobio, and he never mentions Microsoft BASIC as an inspiration.
How did it "pave the way" for the development of the internet, or Unix, or video games, when all of these existed or were in development before the Altair? What exactly was their contribution that nobody before them was thinking of? Microsoft's big innovation was marketing and monetization tactics -- enshittification has always been how they keep the lights on.
emperor000@reddit
Because it's part of the history of computing... And the money they, and other companies, made flowed into the development of all that stuff.
Maybe Apple isn't the best example considering that it might be at the absolute top of companies on this planet, both in terms of hating its customers and hating anything that it doesn't control.
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
How could the release of Altair BASIC (and the subsequent start of Microsoft) in 1978 have brought enough money into the computing world to fund the development of Unix, ARPANET, and the earliest video games ten years earlier?
The Apple of today is at least as bad as Microsoft ever was. But the Apple of 1977 was a very different company with very different ethics, mostly due to Woz having just as much influence over the company as Steve Jobs. Everything went downhill after Jobs became a superstar.
But that all is tangential to my point. I only brought up the Apple II to ask how exactly did Gates' BASIC interpreter pave the way for the "things I like?" Such as home computers? The Apple II was the first true home computer, and it was developed without any influence from Bill Gates and Microsoft. If you have evidence that Gates may have had a bigger part than I'm giving him credit for I'd be interested to see it, but I think the autobiography of the inventor himself is a pretty good source.
(Yes, I know the altair came earlier, but you literally had to solder it together yourself, so I don't count it).
emperor000@reddit
It's all part of the history of computing... Like, the asteroid that likely killed non-avian dinosaurs wasn't great. It had a huge negative impact on the world. But we wouldn't be here without it.
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
Well yeah, you can pull the "butterfly effect" card with literally anything, but what about my reasoning as to why we probably still would be here without Microsoft? Like I said, all of the most important acheivements in computing happened independently of Microsoft.
emperor000@reddit
Just like all the important achievements of mammals happened independently from dinosaurs...
I'm not pulling a "butterfly effect". It's an ecosystem and it's evolving. There is no "independent".
Besides, we have Microsoft today and they are doing good things, whether you can see or accept that or not. Everything they did before this was a step towards what we have now.
And every step they took at some time in the past was a step that one of the other parties might have had to consider when taking their steps.
Stop being so cynical. That's my unsolicited advice, at least.
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
You said Microsoft "paved the way" for the things in software that I "like." Once I pressed you on that, you said it's because everything is connected to everything else. By that reasoning I can say I also "paved the way" for all the greatest modern acheivements.
And you still never addressed how Microsoft could have influenced software innovations that existed a decade before them. It's very safe to say that Unix for example was developed "independently" of a company that didn't even exist yet.
emperor000@reddit
Now you're getting it...
Yes, maybe "paved the way" sounds like it is placing sole responsibility on them, which isn't what I meant. Maybe "helped pave the way" would be better? They contributed. They participated.
I did... you just maybe didn't recognize them because I never said they did that.
But was Linux?
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
Who the hell said anything about linux? Even entertaining the assumption that Linux is in the category of "things I do like" (which I never said it was), show me where Linus Torvalds cited Microsoft's work as any kind of influence. I'll save you some time and say he never does, his main inspiration for Linux was Minix, who in turn was copying Unix, which (for the 50th time) predates Microsoft.
It's literally so simple. You said these exact words:
Why don't you just go ahead and just name even one thing that falls under the category of "things I do like" that didn't already exist in some form until after Microsoft? If you can't then you can't go on to claim that Microsoft "paved the way" for any of them.
Did you type the words I literally copy and pasted right above? Then you made the claim that Microsoft is in any way responsible for the computing achievements I "like." These achievements happened before Microsoft existed. Therefore: Microsoft could not have had any part in them.
emperor000@reddit
You're getting hung up on the "things you like" thing... I can't possibly know what you like. That's not the point.
This is something you're just inventing. I never said influence. You said that.
This is already an artificial invention. Nothing I have said has to do with things that didn't already exist until after Microsoft.
Right... all the achievements that you might like exist in an ecosystem that Microsoft has helped develop.
So you, like, literally only like any computing stuff from before 1975? That was when computing peaked in your mind? It was a bright shining future through the early 70s, but once we got to 1975 it all went down hill?
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
Show your damned math if you're going to makw big claims. How did Microsoft help develop an ecosystem? In what way would the computing world not be fime without them? In an argument you're supposed to say things that demonstrate why you're right, but you just keep repeating "It's all an ecosystem everything affects everything so you wouldn't have anything good if you didm't have Microsoft." That's not reasoning, that's just saying your thesis. You have to have evidence for it. I can easily back up my original claim that software was more free and open before Microsoft, in fact I already did in another comment. Where os your evidence that there would be some gaping hole in the computing world without Bill Gates. You said they "helped develop" an "ecosystem." What did they do? I bet you can't name anything because I bet you're just talking off the top of your head and you don't actually know anything about the history of computers or software.
cheezballs@reddit
Spoken like a true outsider spouting crap that isn't true. Did you read this on your hacker board? Just playing wannabe today on Reddit? it's cute
0rbitaldonkey@reddit
What did I say that's untrue? The quote from Bill Gates is genuine, that's very easy to check.
The rest of it is well established computer history.
From Free and Open Source Software and FRAND-based patent licenses:
There are my receipts, where are yours? What did I say that's untrue?
esiy0676@reddit
Another of those PR stunts ... zero cost and makes good impression - building the image of the behemoth the way THEY want it to be perceived. Pointless otherwise.
Now open source everything else, start with GitHub ...
CodeByExample@reddit
.NET, TypeScript, VSCode...all open source and created by Microsoft.
valarauca14@reddit
How about the open source ReFS or the NT kernel?
CodeByExample@reddit
They're a business that needs to make money at the end of the day and grow to appease shareholders. Other than that, I'm not qualified to answer that.
nebulaeonline@reddit
Wait till they find out Microsoft owns npm too.
Due-Comfortable-7168@reddit
I see it different. In living memory, Microsoft described open source as cancer. Now they're less fearful and starting to dip their toes into open source. I'm not expecting Microsoft to transform over night - they're too big a company with too many stubborn executives. I used to feel the same way, btw, not throwing shade at you.
I'm starting to realize that you don't kill bad ideas by complaining that the good ones aren't enough, you kill them by starving them of the sunlight, shaded by the better ideas. Microsoft makes some pretty amazing software, and it's starting to cast a shadow on the weeds of "Cram ads and tracking into everything." The weeds will be persistent, but open source is the canopy of trees above it.
svick@reddit
MS was "dipping their toes into open source" in 2004, I don't think you can describe them that way nowadays
Due-Comfortable-7168@reddit
Maybe they're ankle-deep, but it's not much further than that. Their core products (Windows, The Office Suite, most of the Azure services they've written) are still all proprietary, with code only available for an astronomical fee.
Sure, VS Code and TypeScript and the .NET CLR have open versions, but Visual Studio proper, DirectX, and huge swaths of their developer products are still proprietary.
They're perfectly fine with being at the depth they're at for now, it seems 🤷♂️
cheezballs@reddit
MS is a major OS contributor....
Scared_Astronaut9377@reddit
I mean, they know that 99.99% of people in the target group"open source good, close source bad" are not going to use neither this not github's source code, so what's the point?
esiy0676@reddit
Even I do not think that. Let them be closed, no problem, but this virtue signalling ... we open sourced something irrelevant, wrote a blogpost about it, let's make it buzz ... I really do not see what's interesting about that code compared to ... a modern day driver, for instance.
randylush@reddit
Eh it’s probably more like they kept it closed source as long as it was competitive to do so, then they forgot about the source for decades, then some crusty engineer found it and convinced some lawyers it was a good idea to open source it. I really doubt it’s a manipulative PR stunt
syklemil@reddit
Yeah, it's also a decent thing to do for computing history. There's a whole murky field of abandonware for historians and retrocomputing fans, and if we could normalize releasing this kind of software as open source, it'd make things easier.
lachlanhunt@reddit
Open-sourcing it for historical preservation is valuable. With plenty of 6502 emulators around, people can still run it, and historians and hobbyists will definitely be interested. It’s also a great educational resource for anyone curious about how early interpreters were written.
T8ert0t@reddit
I forget the term... But it's kind Open-Turfing or something similar.
hi_im_bored13@reddit
Why would they open source GitHub? Git is open source
That is Microsoft's modern strategy, provide an open system that suits devs needs better than anyone else, then add optional monetization features on top of that (e.g. VSCode -> Azure)
pallarax1@reddit
As a software engineer, Im a bit confused by your open source comment, considering .NET and its frameworks (which are developed by Microsoft) are open source (https://github.com/dotnet). They are also a company, you can't open source everything, because you need the competitive advantage. And not sure why you need GitHub open sourced, when you can have plenty of open source alternatives which use "git" under the hood... And guess what, git is also open source (https://github.com/git/git)
CodeByExample@reddit
TypeScript & VSCode are open-source also thanks to Microsoft which most people in this comment section probably use all the time. They're not a perfect company but I personally belive they've found a good balance of monetizing software & open-sourcing others, mostly to their own benefit.
jeffsterlive@reddit
And VSCodium is a fork of that without the Microsoft telemetry.
Top-Figure7252@reddit (OP)
you already know
RVelts@reddit
I remember discovering QBasic on my windows 95 machine as a kid. Picked up a “QBasic For Dummies” book from the library and I was hooked.
It’s funny to look back and realize I learned from physical books and not the internet, but we barely had AOL dialup at the time.
ViveIn@reddit
Cm someone compile and run this?
fyndor@reddit
Pshh Learning programming from AI or YT vids? Back in my day, I didn’t have an instructional material. I had source code that looked like instructions from aliens, because my games weren’t compiled. I learned by turning random knobs (changing code I didn’t understand) and seeing what happened. True three-year old style. True story :). I made a career out of it. Thanks Bill!!!!!!!
fyndor@reddit
I learned to program reading GWBasic. It was compiled so I could see how my games were made. This choice Bill made to ship that on PCs changed my life.
mikemontana1968@reddit
"When I was a young man...." Comment: I grew up learning BASIC and 6502 Assembly on an AIM65. Which was a type of industrial controller computer, just around the time of Apple ][e etc. I was so THRILLED to see there were specific call outs for the Aim65 in the source code! Brought back memories of being a kid again!
ScottContini@reddit
Another article on BASIC being open sourced! How many more are we going to have posted here!
Dense-Activity4981@reddit
I’ll never support bill clown gates or micro.
teabaguk@reddit
10 PRINT "PENUS" 20 GOTO 10
reader_xyz@reddit
Tim Cook: Amazing!
slykethephoxenix@reddit
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
PENUS
andricathere@reddit
Stack overflow, somehow. It is Microsoft after all.
awh@reddit
Mushroom mushroom
labalag@reddit
Badger Badger
scorchgid@reddit
Snaaaaaaaaaaakeee
blahblahaa@reddit
Hey! I didn't program you to stop
stay_fr0sty@reddit
15 FLASH
Zombie_John_Strachan@reddit
17 PRINT CHR$(007)
barvazduck@reddit
Open source? It's a virus!!! A pac-man-like model! Communism!
falconfetus8@reddit
Pac man?
barvazduck@reddit
Gates: Open-source GPL is "Pac-Man-like" | ZDNET https://www.zdnet.com/article/gates-open-source-gpl-is-pac-man-like/
phylter99@reddit
Software communism turns me on.
liquidpele@reddit
Who gives a fuck, is this to distract from the fact that Bill was at that billionaire dinner with Trump?
exophrine@reddit
Bill Gates wrote code?
cheezballs@reddit
Yea, Gates actually was a computer guy who knew shit. Jobs was the weird one. Not a computer guy.
sciencewarrior@reddit
Back in the early days of MS, having your code roasted by Bill Gates was a badge of honor.
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/
kevkevverson@reddit
Fantastic read
hongooi@reddit
😭
AnjinM@reddit
That's a really good tale. Thanks for sharing!
purbub@reddit
That was some good read.
sickofthisshit@reddit
Gorilla.bas , an incredibly sucky DOS game was one of his works. 😉
mikebald@reddit
I printed out the code to this and brought it with me to school to read it 🤓. Fun times.
dlg@reddit
Was it a dot matrix printout with the perforated strips on the side?
mikebald@reddit
Haha, 100%. But I removed it.
One_Economist_3761@reddit
lol. The first game I ever wrote in the 80’s I printed the source code on a dot matrix with those exact strips.
It was a giant stack of pages that I kept in my closet next to my bed.
soft-wear@reddit
It was 1981 everything sucked relatively. Frogger and Donkey Kong were the best games of that era lol.
skinniks@reddit
Lunar Lander on the Pet!
sickofthisshit@reddit
Oh, come on. Donkey Kong was a great game. We had also seen Pac-Man and Asteroids, Woz and Jobs had done Breakout for Atari arcade years before and Woz built the Apple II to do Breakout in his Basic.
Jobs was surprised Gates put his name on it.
FyreWulff@reddit
He was programming since he was 13 and his first software release was a class scheduler for his own high school.
He wrote code from the 70s until the early 1990s before he became an executive/manager full time.
JackieBlue1970@reddit
Last code he worked on that was published was 1983 I believe. It was an editor for a RadioShack portable, can’t recall the model right now. I do remember it had a built in modem and reporters used it for a brief time
Dreamtrain@reddit
you're thinking of Steve Jobs, Bill actually worked on his product early on
Top-Figure7252@reddit (OP)
once upon a time
Separate-Warning4282@reddit
class Dog(Animal): # The Dog class inherits from the Animal class def speak(self): # This is called method overriding print(f"{self.name} says Woof!") def fetch(self): # This is a method specific to the Dog class print(f"{self.name} is fetching the ball.")
E1337Recon@reddit
LDWDI WORDS ;MORE BULLSHITI like it
fratkabula@reddit
makes you wonder what other legendary codebases are locked in corporate vaults.
abetancort@reddit
old, old, news.
EsotericLion369@reddit
GOTO 10
esiy0676@reddit
Hello marketing department ... zero cost and makes good impression - building the image of the behemoth the way THEY want it to be perceived.
Pointless otherwise.