On Fri, 16 May 2008 16:16:53 -0400, Warp wrote:

>   I'm not saying Gates was a talented programmer. I was just doubting
> the claim that he has *never* produced anything original.

According to the wikipedia article, Gates and Allen wrote an Altair 
emulator, and then implemented a BASIC interpreter on top of it.  That 
was in or around 1975.  BASIC itself first appeared in computing in 1964.

So Gates didn't invent BASIC, but rather just implemented it as part of a 
team.  The thing that it seems he was directly involved in at that stage 
that was significant was the construction of the emulator for the Altair 
8800.

According to the article, he reviewed every line of code written in the 
first 5 years of Microsoft's history, and rewrote what he saw fit to 
rewrite.  He also was responsible for overseeing the business details.

Jim

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