Microsoft called the code—written by the company’s founder, Bill Gates, and its second-ever employee, Ric Weiland—”one of the ...

That was almost 50 years ago; since then, Microsoft has embraced open-source software. In recent years, Microsoft has started ...

Fortunately, there are people around the world who work hard at preserving these older systems and give us a living, working ...

Microsoft’s version of BASIC was one of the first programming languages that the general public came into contact with, ...

Since the 1960s, BASIC has introduced countless beginners to computer programming. Here's how the language got started, the paths it cleared for Windows and Apple, and where you can still find it ...

Microsoft has released the source code for the BASIC version it developed in 1976 for the MOS 6502 processor, a central ...

Before BASIC, life in the computer programming world was complicated. The first generation mainframe computers were essentially programmed as they were assembled, like a jigsaw puzzle with ...

"Rick Weiland and I (Bill Gates) wrote the 6502 BASIC," Gates commented on the Page Table blog in 2010. "I put the WAIT ...

This is why I’ve long argued that BASIC is the most consequential language in the history of computing. It’s a language for noobs, sure, but back then most everyone was a noob.

Instead of compiling BASIC source code, BASIC interpreters would interpret and run the code one line at a time, trading execution speed for flexibility and low resource use.

The code Microsoft has released is version 1.1, which apparently contains fixes to the garbage collector identified by ...