MRMrYellowP·Aug 11, 2020
Try this one: https://github.com/mist64/cbmbasic
Or, although not what you asked: https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC
In Building a Basic Interpreter, '80s Style, Part 2microsoft
GW-BASIC
C++2020–2025
microsoft / GW-BASIC · Archived
GW-BASIC
The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983
19Distinct people
21Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
3.5KGitHub stars
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What it is
The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
--------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- COPYRIGHT 1975 BY BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ON THE PDP-10 FROM…
pan69 used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
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Also in these discussions
- mist64/cbmbasic · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 7:02:50 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year21 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2020-05-22 01:06:53 UTC to 2025-09-04 15:55:44 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
What Hacker News says
9 sourcesHere: https://github.com/mist64/cbmbasic
Or, although not what you asked: https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC
In Building a Basic Interpreter, '80s Style, Part 2It does that for "FOR" loops:
https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC/blob/09ad7bc671c90f0ee...
In Converting GW-BASIC to the Z80GW-BASIC (which was included prior to DOS 5.x) had the MOTOR command to control the cassette motor. I don't know if it actually worked though. In Microsoft's released GW-BASIC 1.0 source, it is a no-op and just prints an error message – https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC/blob/master/GIOCAS.ASM [EDIT: I just disassembled GWBASIC.EXE version 3.23, I can see the calls to the BIOS INT 15h cassette API, so it isn't just a no-op in the binary.]
If it worked at all, it would have worked by calling INT 15h functions 0-1, which was part of the BIOS cassette API. I believe in ROM BASIC on the original IBM PC and PCjr, the MOTOR command was actually implemented to call those BIOS routines, and the BIOS actually had code to talk to the cassette port. I think, on subsequent machines, the BIOS routines were stubbed out and just returned an error.
GW
Read the rest
-BASIC was the only part of MS-DOS which had any reference to the cassette tape. The more core parts of MS-DOS (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM) knew absolutely nothing about it.
That's interesting:
; There is a problem with running the ASM86 sources for BASIC as they
; stand. MSDOS puts a 100 hex byte control block at the beginning of the
; EXE file and sets up the ES register to point to it. BASIC, however,
; expects this block to be at 0 in the code segment.
https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC/blob/master/BIBOOT.ASM
In The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983Perhaps stupid questions but how do they get the commit history to be from 38 years ago at https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC
In The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983--------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- -----
COPYRIGHT 1975 BY BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN
--------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- -----
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ON THE PDP-10 FROM
FEBRUARY 9 TO APRIL 9 1975
BILL GATES WROTE A LOT OF STUFF.
PAUL ALLEN WROTE A LOT OF OTHER STUFF AND FAST CODE.
MONTE DAVIDOFF WROTE THE MATH PACKAGE (F4I.MAC).
I love comments like these. They also say that the GW refers to Bill Gates, as in Gates William but I don't know the details on that.
https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC/blob/master/GWMAIN.ASM
Edit: Forgot to say, I was 3 years old when they wrote this code, wow! and I learned programming with GW-BASIC in the late 80's.
In The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983GWMAIN.ASM ( https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC/blob/09ad7bc671c90f0ee... )
BILL GATES WROTE A LOT OF STUFF
In The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983OK, we've changed to that from https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC. Thanks!
In The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983