Tag Archives: BASIC

Microsoft open-sources Bill Gates’ 6502 BASIC from 1978

On Wednesday, Microsoft released the complete source code for Microsoft BASIC for 6502 Version 1.1, the 1978 interpreter that powered the Commodore PET, VIC-20, Commodore 64, and Apple II through custom adaptations. The company posted 6,955 lines of assembly language code to GitHub under an MIT license, allowing anyone to freely use, modify, and distribute… Read More »

The BASIC programming language turns 60

Enlarge / Part of the cover illustration from “The Applesoft Tutorial” BASIC manual that shipped with the Apple II computer starting in 1981. Apple, Inc. reader comments 71 Sixty years ago, on May 1, 1964, at 4 am in the morning, a quiet revolution in computing began at Dartmouth College. That’s when mathematicians John G.… Read More »