The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983

Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by russellbeattie on Friday May 22, 2020 @01:03AM (#23268798)

Interesting. Was that the original IBM PC? I thought it needed DOS for some reason.

I've always thought that using BASIC as the default command line was really weird... Like on an Apple II or TRS-80. You could type in a command to load something from a disk or run a program, or type a line number to start programming. How did that make sense to anyone?? To my 11yo self, it was confusing and I've never changed my mind.

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Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by nsxwolf on Friday May 22, 2020 @02:53AM (#23269335)

Yes. The original PC and PC XT had BASIC in ROM just like all the other home computers of the day. In its most bare bones configuration, you booted into BASIC and used a cassette tape drive for your storage.

I don't know how common that setup was - probably not very. The most typical stripped-down PCs were dual floppy (the hard drive was a premium), and booted either MS-DOS or CP/M.

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Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by int_19h on Saturday May 23, 2020 @12:09AM (#23279828)

If you already have a PL, why not re-use it as a shell? Those environments were very memory and storage limited, so it made a lot of sense.

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