Before Copilot, before Windows, few people know that Microsoft Basic, created by Bill Gates, was the software that launched Microsoft. Now has released the Microsoft Basic source code for 6502 version 1.1the 1978 variant for computers with the MOS 6502 processor, among which were the Apple IICommodore 64, Commodore PET y VIC-20.
Microsoft Basic for 6502 It was the first software that millions of people used to program, since computers such as Apple II or Commodore 64 were very popular in the late 70s and early 80s of the last century.
With two simple orders, 10 print ‘Hello «and 20 Goto 10 was written the word hello in loop on the screen. Today it seems something basic, but in the 70s it was magic: the first time that a normal and current person, not an expert programmer, could schedule a computer.
Microsoft Basic, the language created by Bill Gates
Unlike Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, who was a visionary commercial but did not know how to program, Bill Gates founded Microsoft being a programmer. And has some little known milestones in its curriculum. For example, he created the first PC game in history, and also the first high -level programming language for a domestic computer, this Microsoft BASIC.
Precisely thanks to BASICMicrosoft consolidated as a company, and learned many lessons that applied to Windows.
The company’s first software just founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates was Altair BASICpublished in 1975 for the professional computer PDP-10.
Basic language is very simple to learnbecause it uses orders in English, and its flow is very logical. Simply reading the code, you know what it does. For example, if we analyze this classic program, the first one that is learned in the academies:
- 10 print ‘Hello «
- 20 GOTO 10
If we translate into Spanish:
- 10 Print ‘Hello «
- 20 and A 10
Just reading it, we know what it does. Order 10 (10 in 10) print the word «hello» on screen, and order 20 returns to order 10. It is a classic loop that is repeated indefinitely.
Basic’s problem is that it is slowbecause software called interpreter has to convert these orders to machine code of each processor in particular. That is why there is a specific basic version for each computer.
In 1978, Bill Gates himself took care of Rick Weiland, to bring Basic to the MOS 6502 processor, and they called him Microsoft Basic for 6502. «I invented the Wait order,» says Gates in this blog.
It was a great success, but economically a disaster for the company. They sold the software to Commodore for $ 25,000, without rights or copy income. Millions of Comodore 64 and PET were sold, and Microsoft did not win a cent with it.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen applied this life lesson to Windows, with a computer license and the maintenance of rights. When Windows consolidated himself as the PC standard, Microsoft became the richest software company on the planet.
You can download the source code of Microsoft BASIC for 6502 In Githuband modify or use it as you want. A piece of computer science very valuable for scholars, and emulators developers.
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Tags: Microsoft, developers, Bill Gates, retro, curiosities, programming