3 ms·

I doubt they ever existed. I had to write a VBScript parser some 25 years ago (to syntax-check ASP files before they would crash live) and to get it to parse v

I doubt they ever existed. I had to write a VBScript parser some 25 years ago (to syntax-check ASP files before they would crash live) and to get it to parse valid syntax correctly, I ended up with a messy patchwork of logic which was also letting through some really pathological edge cases. While trying to fix it, to my utter delight, I found that Microsoft’s parsers also allowed the exact same cases which looked nothing like valid code otherwise. I don’t recall specific examples anymore, but they were far from obvious without looking at the parser code, and I made and won bets with other programmers on whether those snippets would throw syntax errors or not.

jakobson14 3y ago
> I doubt they ever existed. Probably right, since Microsoft's BASIC interpreter is probably derived from the one that Bill Gates wrote as a teenage slacker. He wrote it, tried to sell it at the homebrew computer club, and then threw a hissy fit when people kept copying his paper tapes for their friends. Thus, Microsoft was born. (He got lucky later when Microsoft were chosen by IBM to develop a DOS, then bought a working DOS from somebody else. The rest as they say is history)
- vasac 3y ago
  By the time Microsoft secured a deal with IBM, they were already a multimillion-dollar company, which was quite significant in 1980. Judging by their future moves, it's evident that luck wasn't the only factor contributing to their massive success.
  - adrian_b 3y ago
    Microsoft was the most important vendor of programming language compilers and interpreters for the CP/M operating system, for computers based on Intel 8080 or Zilog Z80. They had compilers for many programming languages, but before buying the operating system that they have rebranded proudly as MS-DOS and which they have resold to IBM at an overprice, they had nothing to do with operating systems. So the deal had nothing to do with their previous technical competence, but they happened to know the right information about who is selling and who is buying, which allowed them to gain the most as the middlemen.

jakobson14 3y ago

> I doubt they ever existed. Probably right, since Microsoft's BASIC interpreter is probably derived from the one that Bill Gates wrote as a teenage slacker. He wrote it, tried to sell it at the homebrew computer club, and then threw a hissy fit when people kept copying his paper tapes for their friends. Thus, Microsoft was born. (He got lucky later when Microsoft were chosen by IBM to develop a DOS, then bought a working DOS from somebody else. The rest as they say is history)

vasac 3y ago
By the time Microsoft secured a deal with IBM, they were already a multimillion-dollar company, which was quite significant in 1980. Judging by their future moves, it's evident that luck wasn't the only factor contributing to their massive success.
- adrian_b 3y ago
  Microsoft was the most important vendor of programming language compilers and interpreters for the CP/M operating system, for computers based on Intel 8080 or Zilog Z80. They had compilers for many programming languages, but before buying the operating system that they have rebranded proudly as MS-DOS and which they have resold to IBM at an overprice, they had nothing to do with operating systems. So the deal had nothing to do with their previous technical competence, but they happened to know the right information about who is selling and who is buying, which allowed them to gain the most as the middlemen.