Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site aluxe.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!vaxine!wjh12!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!houxz!houxm!mhuxl!aluxe!lra From: lra@aluxe.UUCP (Lonnie R. Abelbeck, AT&T Bell Labs) Newsgroups: net.micro.apple Subject: Re: Macintosh MS-BASIC warts Message-ID: <187@aluxe.UUCP> Date: Mon, 18-Jun-84 17:42:46 EDT Article-I.D.: aluxe.187 Posted: Mon Jun 18 17:42:46 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jun-84 04:22:02 EDT References: <128@wnuxb.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Allentown, PA Lines: 40 You have only uncovered the surface, by no means does Microsoft BASIC even come close to utilize Mac's power. Some of the things Microsoft screwed-up on are: o When you do an OPEN, you are faced with a single blank box you are supposed to type your filename into. NO scroll bars containing a list of the filenames, NO way to easily access a second drive. This is fine for the IBM-PC, but NOT the Mac. o No COM statement to configure the communication ports. You have to poke in assembly programs to do this. o No sound support of any kind. (Unless you count ^G :) ) o Small working space, <20K if you want the desk accesories to be reasonably responsive. o No way to size the output window from within the BASIC program. o LPRINT doesn't configure the printer port correctly, you must do a screen dump before you do a listing so the XON/XOFF handshaking is performed. o When you do a RENUM the listing window gets burried. agrivating! o No way to cut and paste groups of lines within a listing. I realize that this is tricky with line numbers, but it can be done. Whew! I feel a little better getting that off my chest, but Microsoft!! you can do better, MUCH better. Unless you want sales to drop to zero when the next language comes out, please bless us with an update that makes MS-BASIC a program for the Macintosh, not an IBM retrofit. Awaiting for 'C' also Lonnie R. Abelbeck AT&T Bell Laboratories mhuxi!aluxe!lra