RE: And a spin from teh left and a spin from teh right

David Crook (dcrook@commwerks.com)
Thu, 07 Jan 1999 21:23:38 -0800


At 08:24 PM 1/7/99 -0800, Michael.Orr@Design-Intelligence.com wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: kragen@pobox.com [mailto:kragen@pobox.com]
>>
>> On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Tom Whore wrote:
>> > Although many believe that Microsoft and Apple began working together
as a
>> > result of the August 1997 agreement, the relationship actually extends
all
>> > the way back to 1977, when Microsoft licensed the 6502 Basic Interpreter
>> > to Apple.
>>
>> Using Apple's BASIC interpreter was always very different from using
>> TRS-80 BASIC or MBASIC for CP/M, HDOS, or the built-in BASIC for the
>> IBM PC -- all of which were very similar to one another.
>>
>> Also, I know Apple had a BASIC interpreter before 1977.
>>
>> Are you certain of your fact here?
>
>Apple BASIC for the 6502 was licensed from Microsoft and was very
>similar to the Intel/Zilog implementations you mention. (I would have
>thought that it was delivered in 1978, but I might be off by one.)
>
>A different (Tiny BASIC based?) implementation existed within Apple, but
>wasn't the one they sold. Perhaps you got your hands on it at some
>point.
>
>Later, a non-MS BASIC for the Mac was marketed very briefly, but uh,
>that decision was rapidly reversed. You can read this as evidence of the
>importance of the long-standing close, mutually beneficial relationship
>between Apple and MS, or you can read it as bare-blade infighting. Both
>interpretations are completely accurate.
>

Pardon my geeking out here, but there were two versions of basic that apple
used for the appleII line. The early machines (apple II) had "Integer
Basic" which didn't have floating point numbers, newer machines (apple II+,
//e's, //c+, etc). Had "Applesoft Basic" which did have floating point.
Apple also had an expansion card available with both basics on it and a
toggle switch that stuck out of the back of the machine so you could pick
which one you wanted. Elite apple hackers used the cards to crack
software, since the interer basic rom had this nice feature where it would
just drop you straight into machine language rom command mod where you
could play with things, unlike the applesoft rom which would just reboot
the computer. Not that I would know anything about this stuff. I have no
idea which of these were licensed from Microsoft.

Dave "Looking around for my Beagle Bros Peek/Poke chart" Crook

---
David Crook - davec@commwerks.com
CommWerks - Industrial Strength Internet Solutions