Bill Gates has released the source code for Altair BASIC, the program that laid the foundation for Microsoft. Created in 1975, the interpreter was designed to help novice programmers by providing immediate feedback. Gates and Paul Allen developed the code under tight constraints, including memory limitations and simulation of the Intel 8080 chip for testing. Although limited by today’s standards, Altair BASIC was a breakthrough that led to Microsoft's founding. Gates described their venture into BASIC as a key moment in the coming PC revolution.
We figured the line-by-line approach of an interpreter would be helpful to novice programmers since it would give instant feedback on their code, allowing them to fix any mistakes as they crop up.
Extra memory for the Altair could easily cost more than the computer itself.
This was a pivotal moment for Paul and me. Altair BASIC became the first product of our new company, which we decided to call Microsoft.
We wanted to get in on the ground floor of the PC revolution.
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