Altair Basic was developed by Gates, fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and programmer Monte Davidoff. The trio reportedly coded “day and night for two months” in 1975.

Since the 1960s, BASIC has introduced countless beginners to computer programming. Here's how the language got started, the paths it cleared for Windows and Apple, and where you can still find it ...

Software Microsoft bill gates programming Bill Gates releases the source code for Microsoft's first product, Altair BASIC A blast from the past By Kishalaya Kundu April 3, 2025 at 10:01 AM ...

Gates and his co-founder, Paul Allen, reached out to the company to pitch an interpreter of the BASIC programming language for the Altair 8800.