Gates was obviously a proficient coder. I think you're experiencing a time compression phenomenon here: this was the mid 70s. Microsoft the big bad Microsoft that everyone knows about didn't appear until around the mid 90s. 20 years later, although from the perspective of 2025 those two eras seem pretty much adjacent.
But you stated earlier:
> How were they "pure bread hackers"? Was Gates especially proficient with code? I've never heard that. From what I read, they were the enemies of hackers. This really seems like looking back with rose-colored glasses.
Did you contradict yourself? Also, how do you measure "elite, exceptional, legendary"? Someone not qualifying for that wouldn't be a real coder in your book?
If you win the gotcha game, what do you win? We can attack each other's words or we can try to understand each other. I think my words can be interpreted as I intended:
I think 'pure breed hacker' means much more than 'real coder' or 'can write competent 1980s-level production-quality code'.
I don't mean proficient, I mean elite, exceptional, legendary.