Re: BBC and DEFINT etc [Was: Using GOTO]

On Sep 9, 7:44 am, Derek <derek...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> The Microsoft BASIC interpreter for the Intel 8080 certainly had the
> DEFxxx statements by version 4, if not earlier. They were certainly
> available on my NASCOM 2 in 1980 at any rate. So it does seem a bit
> strange that the BBC left them out of its dialect.

Looking back at my records the BBC Specification stated 'The general
syntax of all commands should be identical to Microsoft Basic 5.0',
but in the list of commands and statements that followed DEFINT etc.
were *not* included.  There was a caveat which said 'If there is any
conflict between what is said below and the Microsoft specification
then the latter should be used' but I suspect that was conveniently
ignored.

Everything was on a very tight time schedule and inevitably BBC BASIC
had to be based on Acorn's older Atom Basic and on the Proton Basic
they had started to develop.  Whilst the BBC was able to insist on a
large number of changes and extra features to meet its requirements,
including improved compatibility with Microsoft BASIC, there had to be
some compromise and its original high aim of almost complete
compatibility was never met.

The rest is history.  The BBC Micro was far more successful than even
the most optimistic predictions and BBC BASIC became, in the UK at
least, far better known and more widely used than any Microsoft
Basic.  By that stage, and since, nobody has really cared much about
compatibility.

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/
To reply by email change 'news' to my forename.