From: utzoo!decvax!cca!mo@LBL-UNIX@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Title: Re: questions without answers Article-I.D.: sri-unix.3136 Posted: Mon Sep 6 16:57:40 1982 Received: Thu Sep 9 06:59:25 1982 From: mo at LBL-UNIX (Mike O'Dell [system]) Date: 3 Sep 1982 09:06:58-PDT I can't tell you about Basic interpreters, but I can tell you about the compat stuff. While it isn't really documented, it is solid, at least, solid enough to run the PDP-11 C compiler, assembler, loader, and other development tools on a routine basis. Almost all the sites running the Greep ARPAnet front-end do the construction work on Vaxes and download into various 11-style machines. The only problem you might have is I don't think it does floating point very well or at all (either case probably implies a user-mode emulator with attendant performance problems). So for the part that I use, it seems solid, but don't be surprised if it gets poorer reviews running Basic. There was a Basic done by Bill Webb at the U of British Columbia Biology Lab which was compatible with various micro Basic's (most notably Microsoft, I think) via a switch which specified particular collections of misfeatures. I thought Bill was going to put it on a Usenix tape, and who knows, maybe he did! You can probably get in touch with Bill and find out. As for other Basics, has noone EVER implemented one in C?? I in fact gave it some thought and just to show my forward-thinking, I looked at the new Standard Basic. My Goodness, the little munchkins on that committee were busy. Another "inclusive-or" language. Sigh.... Hope this helps, -Mike