In the 1970s, Gates and his Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, used a computer in Harvard's lab to compose what he calls the 'coolest code I've written.' It's now public for the first time.

And the fun isn't over yet! To commemorate the special occasion, Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates has joined the fray and shared the source code that shaped the company's origins — Altair BASIC.

Gates and Allen tackled the challenge by latching onto the BASIC computer language that had been developed in 1964 at Dartmouth College, but they still had to figure out a way to make the ...

The Altair BASIC source code is available as a PDF download, covering 157 pages. Gates is “super proud of how it turned out,” and considering what Altair BASIC led to, he should be.

Even as he grows older, Microsoft founder Bill Gates still fondly remembers the catalytic computer code he wrote 50 years ago that opened up a new frontier in technology. Although the code that Gates ...