On Thu, 5 Jul 2001, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> The missing diskette, while this is only a guess, probably had utilities, e.g.
> basic, basica, etc. That was before scandisk, smartdrv, etc.
If it is PC-DOS, then it will have BASIC.COM and BASICA.COM which add disk
I/O and a few extra features to the 32K BASIC that is in ROM in IBM's
machines.
If it is MS-DOS, then it will have GWBASIC. [GW stands for GEE WHIZ!]
GWBASIC is a RAM based version of BASICA, and does NOT require the 32K ROM
BASIC.
Compaq and a few others renamed their GWBASIC into BASICA. They did that
so that batch files, etc. that were written for the PC would work with
Compaq. At least that is what Compaq told me was the reason when they
gave me a free machine in 1983.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Thu Jul 05 2001 - 22:17:58 BST