It seems that Microsoft's programmers weren't afraid to joke around a little bit while they were first coding some of its biggest software titles back in the '80s. Yesterday, Microsoft and the Computer History Museum released the source code from early versions of MS-DOS and Word, and after combing through the files, developer Leon Zandman discovered a number of easter eggs, jokes, and even a brag hidden among the code. "Coded inline because we're gods," reads one note in Word's source code.
There are also dozens of comments referring to elements of the code as hacks, while a couple others throw around the word "fuck." Perhaps the most entertaining comment unearthed by Zandman is a dig against Novell users, reading: "dumb user is using a Novell Network!" You can see all of the comments that Zandman found down below.
Poetry by Bill "Shake" Spear, preserved verbatim for eternity… :-) #msdos #source pic.twitter.com/pcAXjocZKj
— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 25, 2014
'… because we're gods' #Microsoft #Word #source pic.twitter.com/1SkKmjqvKP
— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 25, 2014
Cheap, gruesome, rough, shameful hacks… They got 'em all! #MSDOS #sourcecode :-) pic.twitter.com/EGU9A9ck09
— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 25, 2014
What a hack!! Bad fart!? :-D #MSDOS #V2.0 #Source pic.twitter.com/iaCaiAqf7J
— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 25, 2014
/* dumb user is using a Novell Network! */ #microsoft #word #source pic.twitter.com/2XZ2RnP1YE
— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 25, 2014
Another_fucking_out_of_range_jump #msdos #source pic.twitter.com/IaVZK6qIgE
— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 25, 2014
'… the other registers are free to f*ck with' #msdos #source pic.twitter.com/R5Lc0ttcDk
— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 25, 2014