{"id":170689,"date":"2025-04-04T09:20:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T09:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/apple-2\/michael-tsai-blog-altair-basic-source-code\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T09:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T09:20:23","slug":"michael-tsai-blog-altair-basic-source-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=170689","title":{"rendered":"Michael Tsai – Blog – Altair Basic Source Code"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Bill Gates<\/a> (via Slashdot<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

It feels like just yesterday that Paul and I were hunched over the PDP-10 in Harvard\u2019s computer lab, writing the code that would become the first product of our new company.<\/p>\n

That code remains the coolest code I\u2019ve ever written to this day\u2014and you can see it for yourself at the bottom of this page.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

Paul and I set out to create a BASIC interpreter, which would translate code into instructions the computer understood line by line as the program runs.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

Paul and I decided to divide and conquer. We didn\u2019t have the Intel 8080 chip that the Altair computer ran on, so Paul got to work writing a program that would simulate one on Harvard\u2019s PDP-10 mainframe. This allowed us to test our software without needing an actual Altair. Meanwhile, I focused on writing the main code for the program while another friend, Monte Davidoff, worked on a portion called the math package. We coded day and night for the two months to create the software we had said already existed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Richard Speed<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The source code is provided as a 157-page PDF [link<\/a>] of scanned fan-fold paper rather than as source in a convenient repository<\/a>. An annotated disassembly of Altair BASIC 3.2 can be found on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Previously:<\/p>\n

BASIC<\/a> Bill Gates<\/a> History<\/a> Microsoft<\/a> Open Source<\/a> Programming<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nComments
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