Microsoft has opened the source code of 6502 BASIC, written by Bill Gates himself
Microsoft has made available the BASIC code created in 1976 for the MOS 6502 processor, which was used in many early microcomputers.
Microsoft has made available the BASIC code created in 1976 for the MOS 6502 processor, which was used in many early microcomputers.
As Microsoft explained , its founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote the company's first product — BASIC for the Altair 8800 microcomputer and the Intel 8080 processor — back in 1975.
A year later, Gates and another Microsoft employee, Rick Weiland, adapted Microsoft BASIC for the 6502 processor.
In 1977, Commodore Computer purchased a license for $25,000 and began using Microsoft BASIC in its PET, VIC-20, and Commodore 64 computers. By selling millions of these latter two models, Commodore helped make computing accessible to a wide audience.
The code published by Microsoft is version 1.1, which apparently includes updates to the "garbage collector." These changes were made jointly in 1978 by Commodore engineer John Figans and Bill Gates. Commodore PET users know this version as BASIC V2.
The released code is assembly language source code — 6,955 lines of code that Microsoft has placed on GitHub under the MIT license, which allows free, unrestricted use and even resale.
An interesting detail is that the commit timestamps in the repository show that it was created "48 years ago."
Microsoft says the code includes "conditional compilation support for several pioneering computer systems," including the Apple II, Commodore PET, Ohio Scientific, and MOS Technology KIM-1.
Microsoft says that if you run this code, you will get the following capabilities:
a full implementation of the BASIC language;
floating point calculations;
line processing;
array support (for both integers and strings);
various mathematical functions and operators;
input and output operations.
The repository contains some notes on Microsoft's history. They state that BASIC made the company "a dominant force in the software market before MS-DOS or Windows." Furthermore, "licensing this BASIC interpreter to several computer manufacturers became a key element of Microsoft's early business model."
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