41–48 of 48 posts
One of the things I'm often curious about is how various BASIC interpreters organize memory for string storage. You'd think there's some way to reclaim memory after an expression involving intermediate strings is finished. But you don't see descriptions for how BASIC works in this regard.
The process they used was simple, but brutal.
Credit should be given to Digital Equipment Corporation. Back then software isn't what companies made money on, it is hardware. Source code wasn't guarded as a secret as it is today, and you could find print outs in the dumpster [1]. Bill Gates and Paul Allen found the source code of DEC Basic [2] and ported it. (Wikipedia says Microsoft Basic was "inspired by" DEC's PDP-10 BASIC-PLUS.) [1] https://www.businessinside…
From Paul Allen's site at https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx , it's said that the OS source code printouts is what they got out of the trash: "While his parents were concerned with his slipping grades, there was no slowing him down. He and Bill would go “dumpster diving” in C-Cubed’s garbage to find discarded printouts with source code for the machine’s operating system — an area Paul saw as the “Holy Grail” of software, which he knew he could use to unlock the machine’s potential. He was awestruck by the tightly written elegance on those printed pages."
Credit should be given to Digital Equipment Corporation. Back then software isn't what companies made money on, it is hardware. Source code wasn't guarded as a secret as it is today, and you could find print outs in the dumpster [1]. Bill Gates and Paul Allen found the source code of DEC Basic [2] and ported it. (Wikipedia says Microsoft Basic was "inspired by" DEC's PDP-10 BASIC-PLUS.) [1] https://www.businessinside…
This is the second time I've seen this weird false claim on Hacker News that MS BASIC is a port of DEC BASIC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43576119 . From Paul Allen's site at https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx , it's said that the OS source code printouts is what they got out of the trash: " While his parents were concerned with his slipping grades, there was no slowing him down. He and Bill would…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the second time I've seen this weird false claim on Hacker News that MS BASIC is a port of DEC BASIC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43576119 . From Paul Allen's site at https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx , it's said that the OS source code printouts is what they got out of the trash: " While his parents were concerned with his slipping grades, there was no slowing him down. He and Bill would…
That's completely false. Bill Gates has said [1] he got DEC's Basic source code and "enhanced it". So it is not limited to OS. [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's completely false. Bill Gates has said [1] he got DEC's Basic source code and "enhanced it". So it is not limited to OS. [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
If you read the source the parent poster provides, it plainly says " ...digging out the operating system listings from the trash... " not DEC BASIC. Same deceptive pattern as the previous account making false claims so there's something weird going on here.
"The BASIC they did which we got ahold of the BASIC source code and enhanced t quite a bit was great."
That's a direct Bill Gates quote, see here: [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you read the source the parent poster provides, it plainly says " ...digging out the operating system listings from the trash... " not DEC BASIC. Same deceptive pattern as the previous account making false claims so there's something weird going on here.
What about this sentence don't you understand: "The BASIC they did which we got ahold of the BASIC source code and enhanced t quite a bit was great." That's a direct Bill Gates quote, see here: [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about this sentence don't you understand: "The BASIC they did which we got ahold of the BASIC source code and enhanced t quite a bit was great." That's a direct Bill Gates quote, see here: [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
You're debunking your own claim. It says "enhanced it" presumably for running on the PDP-10. What it clearly does not say is ported or sold as MS BASIC.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the PDF is about 100MB.
that's only because it is 157 images (one per page). if it were text it would have been a more reasonably size, albeit still much larger than the actual source. however, the PDF also adds nostalgia and more information than the source alone. whether that's a good tradeoff I'll leave up to the reader, but clearly Bill Gates thinks it is more interesting to post this than point to GitHub repo. I would agree.
Then maybe throw some small(er) sized images in that pdf + link to full-sized ones on the web.