←back to thread

Microsoft’s original source code

(www.gatesnotes.com)
617 points EvgeniyZh | 2 comments | 03 Apr 25 21:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.411s | source
Show context
breadwinner ◴[03 Apr 25 22:14 UTC] No.43576119[source]▶
Microsoft got its start by Bill Gates doing some dumpster diving. Back then software wasn't seen as valuable thing, only hardware was. Source code wasn't something to be protected, so printouts of code would be thrown in trash. And that's where Bill Gates found the source code for Basic interpreter, which he ported and it became the first Microsoft product.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm

https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx

replies(5): >>43576254 #>>43576295 #>>43576337 #>>43576374 #>>43576401 #
santiagobasulto ◴[03 Apr 25 22:49 UTC] No.43576401[source]▶
I couldn't find the precise reference that mentions that they found the source code for the Basic interpreter and just "copied/ported" it. I did read they'd go "dumpster diving" to learn assembly. But not that they found and just ported the source code. Where is it?
replies(2): >>43576479 #>>43576501 #
1. dekhn ◴[03 Apr 25 22:58 UTC] No.43576479[source]▶
I think it comes from a misread of the text in the gates interview linked in the comment:

"r. We were moving ahead very rapidly: BASIC, FORTRAN, LISP, PDP-10 machine language, digging out the operating system listings from the trash and studying those. Really not just banging away to find bugs like monkeys[laughs], but actually studying the code to see what was wrong."

My understanding is that they saw the source implementation for other BASICs (on mainframes or whatever they were called at the time) but their code is mostly their own. Few if any programmers spring fully-formed from the head of zeus (although paul allen was close) and plenty of valuable intellectual property was originally created elsewhere.

replies(1): >>43576759 #
2. breadwinner ◴[03 Apr 25 23:38 UTC] No.43576759[source]▶
"The listings evidently included Basic for the PDP-10, but it was Allen who did the Assembler programming to simulate the Altair, while Gates, Monte Davidoff and later Allen worked on a Basic interpreter for the machine."

See https://www.theregister.com/2000/06/29/bill_gates_roots/