Microsoft puts 1983 GW-BASIC on GitHub

Microsoft has fully embraced open source for a few years now, but the company’s latest achievement takes that concept to the extreme: the company has made GW-BASIC available on GitHub.

Microsoft has posted the programming language on GitHub. The company writes in a blog post that it received many requests to release GW-BASIC and wanted to comply. The release is also said to have a “historical and educational purpose.”

Microsoft created GW-BASIC as an alternative to IBM’s Advanced BASIC, which in turn was a port of BASIC itself. GW-BASIC was a programming language for Intel’s 8088 processor, released in February 1983. Microsoft programmer Rich Turner writes in a blog post that there are no ports for processors other than the 808x series, although he does not say why.

The programming language is available as an archive on GitHub. It is therefore not possible for other users to make changes to the code. It is also not possible to create executable binaries. It’s not the first time Microsoft has put old software on GitHub. Two years ago, the company made MS-DOS open source available.