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Microsoft’s original source code

(www.gatesnotes.com)
617 points EvgeniyZh | 10 comments | 03 Apr 25 21:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.601s | source | bottom
1. jer0me ◴[03 Apr 25 22:14 UTC] No.43576120[source]▶
The source code is linked at the end (warning: it's a 100 MB PDF).

https://images.gatesnotes.com/12514eb8-7b51-008e-41a9-512542...

replies(4): >>43576155 #>>43576324 #>>43576552 #>>43577511 #
2. mysterydip ◴[03 Apr 25 22:19 UTC] No.43576155[source]▶
Ironic for something designed to take up only 4KB on its target machine :)
replies(1): >>43576922 #
3. seabass-labrax ◴[03 Apr 25 22:39 UTC] No.43576324[source]▶
Thank you for the warning. I once used up my Internet package's entire monthly quota by following a similar link on Hacker News.
4. masfuerte ◴[03 Apr 25 23:08 UTC] No.43576552[source]▶
Nice one. Has anyone OCRed this back into text?
replies(1): >>43579242 #
5. paulddraper ◴[04 Apr 25 00:03 UTC] No.43576922[source]▶
(It's a high-res image of the printed code.)
6. pdw ◴[04 Apr 25 01:45 UTC] No.43577511[source]▶
The printout is dated 10-SEP-75 and is labeled "VERSION 3.0 -- MORE FEATURES TO GO".

Curiously this isn't the oldest extant version of the source code. The Harvard archives have a copy of version 1.1, printed on 30 April 75. http://altairbasic.org/other%20versions/ian.htm

replies(1): >>43579611 #
7. pronoiac ◴[04 Apr 25 07:22 UTC] No.43579242[source]▶
I attempted OCR with OCRmyPDF / Tesseract. It's not great, but it's under 1% the size, at least. https://github.com/pronoiac/altair-basic-source-code
replies(1): >>43580522 #
8. Aardwolf ◴[04 Apr 25 08:22 UTC] No.43579611[source]▶
The printout also contains dates 6-SEP-64 below it, any idea what those are?
9. noname120 ◴[04 Apr 25 11:03 UTC] No.43580522{3}[source]▶
Maybe you should try something like EasyOCR instead: https://github.com/JaidedAI/EasyOCR
replies(1): >>43587741 #
10. pronoiac ◴[04 Apr 25 21:26 UTC] No.43587741{4}[source]▶
Feel free to run EasyOCR against it and submit a PR