5 ms·

This is the second time I've seen this weird false claim on Hacker News that MS BASIC is a port of DEC BASIC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43576119 http

This is the second time I've seen this weird false claim on Hacker News that MS BASIC is a port of DEC BASIC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43576119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43576119. From Paul Allen's site at https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx , it's said that the OS source code printouts is what they got out of the trash: "While his parents were concerned with his slipping grades, there was no slowing him down. He and Bill would go “dumpster diving” in C-Cubed’s garbage to find discarded printouts with source code for the machine’s operating system — an area Paul saw as the “Holy Grail” of software, which he knew he could use to unlock the machine’s potential. He was awestruck by the tightly written elegance on those printed pages."

petilon 13d ago
That's completely false. Bill Gates has said [1] he got DEC's Basic source code and "enhanced it". So it is not limited to OS. [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
- ThrowawayR2 13d ago
  If you read the source the parent poster provides, it plainly says "...digging out the operating system listings from the trash..." not DEC BASIC. Same deceptive pattern as the previous account making false claims so there's something weird going on here.
  - petilon 13d ago
    What about this sentence don't you understand: "The BASIC they did which we got ahold of the BASIC source code and enhanced t quite a bit was great." That's a direct Bill Gates quote, see here: [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
    - ThrowawayR2 13d ago
      You're debunking your own claim. It says "enhanced it" presumably for running on the PDP-10. What it clearly does not say is ported or sold as MS BASIC.
      - petilon 13d ago
        You can use another word instead of "port". What is undeniable is that the Gates team looked at the DEC Basic source code, had extensive experience with it (having enhanced it), and the Basic they later made had functional similarities to DEC Basic. It is undeniable that DEC deserves some credit, as MS Basic is not a clean room implementation.

petilon 13d ago

That's completely false. Bill Gates has said [1] he got DEC's Basic source code and "enhanced it". So it is not limited to OS. [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm

ThrowawayR2 13d ago
If you read the source the parent poster provides, it plainly says "...digging out the operating system listings from the trash..." not DEC BASIC. Same deceptive pattern as the previous account making false claims so there's something weird going on here.
- petilon 13d ago
  What about this sentence don't you understand: "The BASIC they did which we got ahold of the BASIC source code and enhanced t quite a bit was great." That's a direct Bill Gates quote, see here: [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm
  - ThrowawayR2 13d ago
    You're debunking your own claim. It says "enhanced it" presumably for running on the PDP-10. What it clearly does not say is ported or sold as MS BASIC.
    - petilon 13d ago
      You can use another word instead of "port". What is undeniable is that the Gates team looked at the DEC Basic source code, had extensive experience with it (having enhanced it), and the Basic they later made had functional similarities to DEC Basic. It is undeniable that DEC deserves some credit, as MS Basic is not a clean room implementation.