For Microsoft's 50th anniversary, Bill Gates shared his first major contribution to the company — the Altair BASIC code. Interestingly, this code is not related to the Windows operating system.
In 1975, while still students at Harvard University, Bill Gates and Paul Allen began writing software for the Altair 8800 computer. Within a month, they developed a working interpreter for the BASIC programming language and presented the code to MITS, the manufacturer of the Altair 8800.
This code became Microsoft's first major project and later served as the foundation for the company's first operating system (Altair OS).
Bill Gates has published this code on his personal website in a 157-page PDF format.
