HN Reader

The source code is such a fun read (for the comments). I found some source code for GW-BASIC, and here are two of my favorites:

  ;WE COULD NOT FIT THE NUMBER INTO THE BUFFER DESPITE OUR VALIENT
  ;EFFORTS WE MUST POP ALL THE CHARACTERS BACK OFF THE STACK AND
  ;POP OFF THE BEGINNING BUFFER PRINT LOCATION AND INPUT A "%" SIGN THERE

  ;CONSTANTS FOR THE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR FOLLOW
  ;DO NOT CHANGE THESE WITHOUT CONSULTING KNUTH VOL 2
  ;CHAPTER 3 FIRST

Edit: GW-BASIC, not QBASIC (https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC)

Steve Jobs used to say the problem with Microsoft is they don’t have taste.

The font-shimmering effect on scroll immediately reminded me of that, it is really distracting. And you can’t use reader mode to disable it.

(FWIW, I’m a fan of Bill Gates and all he’s done for the world)

I've written an Intel 8080 emulator that was portable between Dec10/VAX/IBM VM CMS. That was easy - the 8080 can be done quite simply with a 256 value switch - I did mine in FORTRAN77.

Writing a BASIC interpreter, with floating point, is much harder. Gates, Allen and other collaborators BASIC was pretty damned good.

What stands out to me about Gates and Allen is the serious technical chops. Writing an emulator for the PDP-10 and then an interpreter, line editor, I/O system all in 4KB of memory. The code is worth reading and in addition to that they had a very solid business sense and pretty serious work ethic for people who were 20 years old.

It stands to me in real contrast to the "fake it till you make it", "if it works you shipped too late" hustle culture that took hold of the industry, with entire products just being API wrappers. Really hope we see more companies that start out like Microsoft again.

Some luck, and willingness to take risks paid off in ways that could never be anticipated. Not sure I'll see something like the pc era in my lifetime. Perhaps mobile phones, or the Internet.

Flipping through the source code is like a time machine tour of tech's evolution over the past 50 years. It made me wonder: will our 2025 code look as ancient by 2075?

And, btw, great infographics within the post.

The source code is linked at the end (warning: it's a 100 MB PDF).

https://images.gatesnotes.com/12514eb8-7b51-008e-41a9-512542...

It's interesting reading this after finishing Palo Alto by Malcom Harris.

Total sidenode but "Gates Notes" has to be one of the most exotic personal blogs I've ever seen. At this point would you even consider this a personal blog?

This website froze my phone, not joking.

I would say, "Looking forward to the github repo with this code in ASCII" but I realize Microsoft would likely not allow that.

Damn this is cool. I think text is an underutilized medium for design.

Tried to open this page and the music I was streaming started to stutter so hard I just exed out. Is this a preposterously heavy page, or just very heavy?

I wonder who the handwritten notes on page 98 are by?

Starts with "confirm plane reservation on Tue. Sept 2 or Wed. Sept 3" which is correct for 1975

A recent disassembly of, I think the same code. https://github.com/option8/Altair-BASIC/blob/master/BASIC%20...

I checked in a few places at the start and towards the end (the sin function) and they matched.

The fact that Microsoft has a $2.77 trillion market cap despite being terrible at virtually everything it tries to do proves large swaths of the economy are fake.

Source code published as PDF? Come on, this should be published on Github.

pretty slick

Guys, even reading this article could land you in jail!! Reading the code will forever taint your knowledge and cause every line you write to be subject to a lawsuit !! Stay safe !11

(Anyone else remember 2004, how scared everyone was when the Windows 2000 source was leaked?)

[flagged]

Its written for people who know nothing about computers but most people who will read it knows loads.

Microsoft got its start by Bill Gates doing some dumpster diving. Back then software wasn't seen as valuable thing, only hardware was. Source code wasn't something to be protected, so printouts of code would be thrown in trash. And that's where Bill Gates found the source code for Basic interpreter, which he ported and it became the first Microsoft product.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm

https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx