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The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

devblogs.microsoft.com

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Re: The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

#211

Post by jki275 »

deepspace wrote: post #140
tobinfricke wrote: post #3

Wow, what a blast from the past. I learned to program with BASICA.EXE and GW-BASIC as a kid in the late 80's. I just noticed that microsoft has also released the source to MS-DOS 2.0: https://github.com/microsoft/MS-DOS I don't think I ever imagined that I'd be able to "look behind the curtain" like this, let alone that Microsoft would come to embrace open source. From there I moved on to Turbo Pascal 3.0, and then B…

Thirty years later, I still miss the Turbo Pascal / Borland Pascal, Borland C(++) experience. Few, if any, 'modern' IDEs have yet reached the simplicity and ease of that development environment.

I loved Turbo Pascal back in the 90s, that was the first IDE I ever used.

I think Visual Studio 6 is equivalent in ease of use and user experience -- that's what I learned C++ on back in the early 2000s, before the influx of Java and Python into academia.

Re: The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

#213

Post by JoeAltmaier »

I remember when Bill Gates released his terrible BASIC for homebrew computers. It was implemented in ROM (because nobody had enough RAM to hold something like an interpreter). It was terrible, bug-ridden and unambitious. I recall thinking at the time "I could do better than that!".

If only I had :)

Re: The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

#214

Post by npongratz »

cabaalis wrote: post #205
linguae wrote: post #56

The funny thing about this announcement is that a week ago I just found my old QBASIC textbook that I learned how to program with back in 1998. QBASIC was my very first programming language; I was a nine year old kid who loved computers and would read anything computer-related that was available, including my mom's textbooks (she was returning to college at the time and took some courses on computing and applications…

I recently found my copy of the Precomputer 1000 manual that I learned BASIC with around 1993. It's now mounted in a shadow box!

That's awesome! I enjoyed my Precomputer 1000 so much when I started digging into the BASIC module, that I experienced my first bout of insomnia when I was in second grade (around age seven). Earlier that day I had discovered the trigonometric functions, and they fascinated me so much that I obsessively spent hours running different numbers through them, individually and in combination. I didn't understand trig at that age, so I didn't know that significance of the calculations, but I knew I wanted to develop an intuition for them.

That night as I tried falling asleep, the numbers and functions were all I could think about, preventing me from sleeping. It scared me, but I knew that excitement would lead to something interesting someday. It did: I can trace my academic work and career directly back to that experience with the Precomputer 1000.

To this day, I try to limit my bedtime reading to fiction, because when I read technical non-fiction, I get too hopped up on knowledge to want to fall asleep.

Re: The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

#215

Post by C1sc0cat »

edejong wrote: post #141
weej wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - Edsger Dijkstra

That quote is misattributed and I also think it is not something Dijkstra would have said. Quite the opposite actually. However, I think this quote from him is much more beautiful: In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind. (Turing award lecture, 1972)

Dijkstra probably assumed that you would have the programming chops and language knowledge.

As our second best DBA did when I worked at BT - he had worked at NPL and Dijkstra was his boss

Re: The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

#218

Post by lioeters »

linguae wrote: post #56

The funny thing about this announcement is that a week ago I just found my old QBASIC textbook that I learned how to program with back in 1998. QBASIC was my very first programming language; I was a nine year old kid who loved computers and would read anything computer-related that was available, including my mom's textbooks (she was returning to college at the time and took some courses on computing and applications…

As a child, I grew up with BASIC and Turbo Pascal. Your comment made me wonder, which version of BASIC that was.

It turns out, I was using N88-BASIC(86), developed by a Japanese team. Reverse-engineered from N88-BASIC to run on 8086 processor, and produced bytecodes compatible with Microsoft's GW-BASIC, which was released around the same time.

> There's nothing like the joy of programming for the very first time, the realization that you can create something that works with code.

That's so true. I'm thankful that I had use of a computer as a toy, essentially, and the joy I found in creative programming carried me far into the present. I'm not in the education field (at the moment) but would love to, as I get older, to do my part in passing down the torch, to inspire younger people to feel the magic. In my current role at a company, as part of the leadership, I also try to find, share, and encourage that joy.

Re: The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

#219

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

ken wrote: post #131
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You find me someone who can code assembly for 8 hours a day continuously for two months and I'll hire them on the spot.

Is that a serious offer? It's been a couple years but I'm sure with a little practice I could get up to speed again, and (like half the country) I do happen to find myself out of a job right now.

No, I was trying to make a point. Namely, that no one produces that kind of output consistently over time.

I apologize for not taking current economic conditions into consideration with what was clearly a poorly-worded post.

Re: The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

#220

Post by Theodores »

pan69 wrote: post #99
perl4ever wrote: post #92

I wasn't particularly aware of it, but it looks like the TRS-80 BASIC that introduced me to programming was also probably developed by Microsoft, and I'm pretty sure that AmigaBASIC was as well. I think I also used QuickBASIC on the Mac a little, but what I particularly remember was a demo for it that visually showed different sorting algorithms, that inspired me to do something similar in Pascal.

Microsoft BASIC was all over the place in the late 70's and early 80's. Before MS-DOS, Microsoft was basically a programming languages company (and they still are today). They licensed their BASIC to many other companies, even Apple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_BASIC

In my opinion this was not good. Basic was considered harmful and was possibly the first computer thing to be considered harmful. Line numbers, REM statements, the GOTO statement and much else had to be unlearned by anyone moving on to a professional set of programming tools.

At the time we felt enabled rather than held back. But many Microsoft products were like that. The OS on a BBC micro was far ahead of DOS. Then the whole concept of the personal computer took hold even though we had already seen networking. Then the browser wars.

Now we learn that Linux is to be in Windows good and proper. So we are getting there in the end.

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