May 2025
Last month, Bill Gates celebrated the 50th anniversary of Microsoft by releasing its earliest known source code: the Altair BASIC interpreter. The significance of Microsoft's first endeavor has been discussed ad nauseum by industry and insiders for decades - to which, I have nothing to add.
As for the source code, I hope to help future code readers enjoy exploring minds from an earlier era. The first hurdle? Converting the 314 pages of fanfold impact printouts into something easier to analyze. Here you go:
Altair BASIC 3.0 source on GitHub:
- WYSIWYG directly from the paper feed (repo / raw)
- Assembly only (with and without line numbers)
- ...and more view slices discussed in the repo
Armed with accessible source, we're ready to start our journey to appreciate what Gates called "the coolest code I've ever written"
Solid Foundations
Analysis in progress...
FAQ
More questions added as they roll in