was windows made with BASIC?

[wraph]

On the bill gates biography it says "Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer" but did he use this language to make windows?

[big_k105]

im not thinking they used basic. my guess is they used c and assembly to create windows. and maybe some c++. i couldnt find anything to prove what windows was writen in but im pretty sure it was c and assembly

[TallCool1]

On the bill gates biography it says "Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer" but did he use this language to make windows?

The two have no relationship to each other. Billy "programmed" BASIC for theAltair 8800 in 1976 (actually, according to the evidence, he dumpster-dived Digital BASIC), the first version of Windows wasn't started until about 6 years later--by which time Gates was no longer a "programmer".

As was pointed out earlier, Windows is a mixture of C and machine language.

[oalee]

just having the thought of coding windows in BASIC is already a nightmare. Imagine all the lines of codes that you'll have to do just to make a window move with a mouse showing all its contents... geeesshh...

[Phaelax]

it would be too slow with basic anyway. Its a combination of C, assembly/machine code.

[Real-tiner]

They used C, which explains why Windows crashes so often.

[Narue]

They used C, which explains why Windows crashes so often.

That's an ignorant overgeneralization. You meant to say "The used Cpoorly, which explains why Windows crashes so often."

[vegaseat]

William Gates' claim to the "Programmers Hall of Fame" is DOS, specifically MS-DOS for the the first IBM PC. I think that was written in assembler. It was a great achievement in those early PC days. This comes from a person who used some of the alternative disk operating systems.

The graphical user interface called Windows came later, patterned after an effort at Xerox, and later the Apple Lisa computer. A graphical user interface would have been too much for the slow speed and limited memory of early PCs.

[vegaseat]

I have heard that present day Windows and the .Net framework are being increasingly written in C# (Csharp) rather than the more traditional C++

[Phaelax]

Except that Gates didn't write DOS, he purchased it from some guy for like $10k or something and then turned around and sold it to IBM for tons more money than he paid.

[Real-tiner]

That's an ignorant overgeneralization. You meant to say "The used C poorly, which explains why Windows crashes so often."

No, I mean they used C, instead of some language with stronger runtime checking for errors.

[The_Inferno]

I was reading his book some time ago.
He made a version for a really really old comp can't remember the name but I know it would not have been strong enough to make windows. I think windows was made in C but I am not sure.

[w00dy]

Except that Gates didn't write DOS, he purchased it from some guy for like $10k or something and then turned around and sold it to IBM for tons more money than he paid.

It's also said that Gates's DOS was mostly 'dumpster-dived' OS/2, No wonder he grins all the time.

[Elfshadow]

It's also said that Gates's DOS was mostly 'dumpster-dived' OS/2, No wonder he grins all the time.

I don't think thats very true OS/2 is more of a unix like OS like xenix with lots of DOS support.And MS DOS was made before OS/2.

[jbennet]

They used C, which explains why Windows crashes so often.

Linux and UNIX are written in C and there the most stable operating systems around IMHO so your point is invalid. Windows is only unstable as it is badly written.

C is the best language in terms of speed (apart from maybe assembley, but thats very cryptic so c is better for writing large apps like whole oses in - i do believe that small parts of windows are in assembler though.)No, I mean they used C, instead of some language with stronger runtime checking for errors.

what other languages?

any modern languages (Python, Java, All of .NET) are all slower than C as they require some sort of framework or interpreter which must be made in a language such as C anyway.

[Ene Uran]

The most optimized execution speed can only be achieved with assembly code. However, Microsoft's 20,000 programmers would now be half way through the fist version of Windows.

You have to balance execution and development speed to make a little money in the trade.

[Thon]

The first version of Windows was written in Pascal. It was so unstable that subsequent versions were written in C. C and Pascal are both compiled languages - they convert your program from something resembling human language into the primitive instructions understood by the machine. Basic was designed as an interpreted teaching language for beginners. Intepreters allow you to chop and change and deal with mistakes without crashing - great for rapid development and learning - but they tend to be much slower than compiled languages.
For that reason Basic would have been unsuitable for writing an operating system.

[MidiMagic]

DOS was actually an improvement of CP/M.

Compiled Basic would have been suitable.

The reason Pascal was not suitable was that it is not designed to operate ports.

[Thon]

Windows was originally an application written in Pascal that ran on top of DOS. Pascal was popular in the eighties because it embodied the principles of structured programming. It was a very restrictive language since it was intended to channel the programmer into good programming practice and forbid the bad. It was a real nanny language. Very frustrating. It was overtaken by C which gave the programmer greater freedom especially with hardware.

[Terry Robinson]

It is correct that The Bill didn't write DOS - see http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033099.htm for a quick history. Also note that the Altair BASIC was also used on the TRS-80, which sold a lot more units than Altair. Windows is indeed C and assembler, with C++ in the later versions. As for NET - it is mostly just a shell over Windows COM technology. COM is still being supported and upgraded by Microsoft, which makes me wonder if NET will ever become a 'real' OS, even in Redmond.