Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site spice.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!spice.cs.cmu.edu!tdn From: tdn@spice.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Thomas Newton) Newsgroups: net.micro.mac Subject: Re: Apple Press Mac Basic (Flame) Message-ID: <453@spice.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA> Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 12:24:33 EDT Article-I.D.: spice.453 Posted: Fri Sep 20 12:24:33 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 06:16:04 EDT Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 24 Macintosh BASIC is not the same as Microsoft BASIC. It is a different product that Apple was working on, but I have heard that it will never see the light of day (Apple gave Microsoft the rights to crucial parts of it in return for an extension to their license to produce Applesoft BASIC ROMs). One of its features was the ability to run several BASIC programs at once. I don't know how good or bad the book that you bought actually is, but it's not appropriate to flame it because it doesn't describe MS-BASIC -- that isn't its purpose!!! Anyone want to compute the odds that any Apple product that competes strongly with a Microsoft product will never see the light of day? Consider: * the relative utility of memory-based MacWrite and WORD on a 128K Mac (restricting the comparison to text storage ability) * the amount of time that it took Apple to bring out disk-based MacWrite (which is still considerably less powerful than WORD) * the sale of key portions of Macintosh BASIC to Microsoft, after it was ALREADY COMPLETED and publishers had sunk time & money into producing books about it. As to a list of file I/O commands: if you have a legitimate copy of MS-BASIC, you should also have a reference manual which lists all of the commands. If you are using a school's copy of MS-BASIC on the school's computer, you should ask them to loan you the documentation. -- Thomas.Newton@spice.cs.cmu.edu