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From: hall@ittral.UUCP (Doug Hall)
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Subject: Mac Benchmarks
Message-ID: <388@ittral.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Mar-84 14:09:58 EST
Article-I.D.: ittral.388
Posted: Sun Mar 18 14:09:58 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Mar-84 00:46:35 EST
Lines: 21

[ask, and it shall be given]


     I had a chance to try out MacPascal and MacBasic (a pre-pre-release
version as far as I know) and I was very impressed. While the graphics were
very nice, the thing that impressed me the most was the speed. A few simple
benchmarks were run using MacPascal and compared favorably to the same
programs run on a Sage IV. I realize that's not a totally fair test, since
the Sage was running the p-system and MacPascal is interpreted (incrementally
compiled?) but it was still impressive. A few benchmarks using MacBasic ran
approximately 3-5 times faster than the same programs on the IBM-PC and much
faster than in Applesoft on my //e. One nice feature of MacBasic is that it
doesn't require line numbers unless you are referencing a line with a goto
statement. The MacPascal environment has a nice syntax checker and a sort
of "pretty program" feature which will take care of indentions, etc.
     My overall impression is that MacPascal and MacBasic are worth having
(and waiting for.) I don't know when it will be available, how much it will
cost, or any other details, and I don't know where the version I saw came
from. None of the dealers around here have it, as far as I know.

     Good things come to those who wait.