The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 (devblogs.microsoft.com)

Article summary

Microsoft has open-sourced the source code of GW-BASIC, a BASIC interpreter from 1983, on GitHub. The source code is written in 8088 assembly language and is being released for historical reference and educational purposes. The code will not be modified or updated, and no pull requests will be accepted. This release follows Microsoft's previous open-sourcing of MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0.

Main themes

• GW-BASIC source code release
• Microsoft open-source efforts
• Programming history
• Retro computing
• BASIC interpreters
• Software preservation

What commenters say

• The release of GW-BASIC's source code is a significant event for nostalgic programmers who learned to code with the interpreter.
• Some commenters would like to see Microsoft open-source other classic development tools, such as QuickBasic or Visual Basic.
• The open-sourcing of GW-BASIC may have implications for historical preservation and education, but it is unlikely to have significant legal or practical implications.
• Some commenters believe that Microsoft should release a modern BASIC compiler or interpreter as part of Windows, while others think this is unnecessary.
• The release of GW-BASIC's source code has sparked discussion about the history of programming and the development of early personal computers.
• Some commenters are interested in comparing the released source code with existing disassemblies or reverse-engineered versions of GW-BASIC.
• There are differing opinions on whether the master source code for Microsoft's BASIC interpreters was highly abstract or specific to individual processors.