ew seconds later the PDP would type back its response. Bill Gates was immediately hooked—so was his best friend at the time，Kent Evans，and another student，Paul Allen，who was two years older than Bill.
Whenever they had free time，and sometimes when they didn’t，they would dash over to the computer room to use the machine. The students became so single-minded that they soon overtook their teachers in knowledge about computing and got into a lot of trouble because of their obsession. They were neglecting their other studies—every piece of work was handed in late. Classes were cut. Computer time was also proving to be very expensive. Within months，the whole budget that had been set aside for the year had been used up.
At fourteen，Bill was already writing short programs for the computer to perform. Early games programs such as Tic-Tac-Toe，or Noughts and Crosses，and Lunar Landing were written in what was to become Bill’s second language，BASIC.
One of the reasons Bill was so good at programming is because it is mathematical and logical. During his time at Lakeside，Bill scored a perfect eight hundred on a mathematics test. It was extremely important to him to get this grade—he had to take the test more than once in order to do it.
If Bill Gates was going to be good at something. It was essential to be the best.
Bill’s and Paul’s fascination with computers and the business world meant that they read a great deal. Paul enjoyed magazines like Popular Electronics while Bill liked the business ones. Computer time was expensive and，because both boys were desperate to get more time and because Bill already had an insight into what they could achieve financially，the two of them decided to set themselves up as a company: The Lakeside Programmers Group.“Let’s call the real world and try to sell something to it!”Bill announced.
少年比尔·盖茨
利奥波特
童年时期——即使成了大人——比尔也不修边幅。据说为了改此习惯，玛丽为他制定了一周的着装计划。周一上学时穿蓝色装，周二绿色，周三棕色，周四黑色，等等。周末的用餐时间也安排得井井有条。比