Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#1

Post by Eridanus2 » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC

Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]
images.gatesnotes.com

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#2

Post by thrownawaysz » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

"FILE WILL BE DELETED AFTER PRINTING"

hah I've never seen that before but reminds me to roguelike games.

"permadeath coding" would be actually fun. IF compiler error THEN erase code repository or something like this

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#3

Post by piker » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 9:06 PM UTC

These two guys* were crazy productive in the 2 months they worked. Just the level of commenting shows how much thought they were able to give it during that span.

* plus the math package guy

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#4

Post by davidfekke » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 9:29 PM UTC

Here is the 6502 assembly source code for Microsoft Basic:

https://github.com/microsoft/BASIC-M6502

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#5

Post by WillAdams » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 9:41 PM UTC

thrownawaysz wrote: post #2

"FILE WILL BE DELETED AFTER PRINTING" hah I've never seen that before but reminds me to roguelike games. "permadeath coding" would be actually fun. IF compiler error THEN erase code repository or something like this

Or, just buy the source for a dollar and bury it:

https://www.folklore.org/MacBasic.html

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#6

Post by jll29 » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

piker wrote: post #3

These two guys* were crazy productive in the 2 months they worked. Just the level of commenting shows how much thought they were able to give it during that span. * plus the math package guy

Does the code work?

I.e., has anyone OCR'd the listing and fed it into an emulator yet?

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#7

Post by joebig » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 10:04 PM UTC

And all of it within ~4 Kbytes too!

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#8

Post by bitwize » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 10:06 PM UTC

thrownawaysz wrote: post #2

"FILE WILL BE DELETED AFTER PRINTING" hah I've never seen that before but reminds me to roguelike games. "permadeath coding" would be actually fun. IF compiler error THEN erase code repository or something like this

The source code (and original assets) to many video games from as late as the 90s has been lost. The publishing company often deleted it after the game shipped, thinking it just took up space. This is one reason why, for example, there hasn't been a substantive remaster of Final Fantasy VII.

Also, it sounds like you described Vigil: https://github.com/munificent/vigil

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#9

Post by ChrisArchitect » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

Associated blog post from 2025:

Celebrate 50 years of Microsoft with the company's original Source code

https://www.gatesnotes.com/microsoft-original-source-code

(Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43575884)

Re: Altair Basic Interpreter Source Code (1975) [pdf]

#10

Post by teddyh » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 10:21 PM UTC

thrownawaysz wrote: post #2

"FILE WILL BE DELETED AFTER PRINTING" hah I've never seen that before but reminds me to roguelike games. "permadeath coding" would be actually fun. IF compiler error THEN erase code repository or something like this

Kent Beck called this “test && commit || revert” in 2018, and credits Oddmund Strømme for the idea: https://medium.com/@kentbeck_7670/test-commit-revert-870bbd7...>