Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 UW 5/3/83; site uw-beaver Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!info-mac From: info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) Newsgroups: fa.info-mac Subject: Re: Macintosh Basic!!! Message-ID: <1528@uw-beaver> Date: Tue, 21-Aug-84 04:55:52 EDT Article-I.D.: uw-beaver>.1528 Posted: Tue Aug 21 04:55:52 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Aug-84 01:27:54 EDT Sender: daemon@uw-beave Organization: U of Washington Computer Science Lines: 25 From: ssc-vax!eve@ssc-bee (Michael Eve) [ED. - Note that the original message dealt with Apple Macintosh Basic, and not Microsoft BASIC which this message deals with. Hopefully this will clear up any confusion others have. From what I have seen, Apple Macintosh Basic is a complete win.] .... Before you shell out the bucks for Microsoft Basic, I suggest you read the August Byte, pg. 248. The author claims that with usoft Basic, there is only 13k bytes available for user program and data space! I also attended a seminar by one of the designers of Microsoft Basic here in Seattle. To achieve 14-digit precision with dollars and cents, BCD arithmetic is used internally exclusively. That should really shoot performance in the foot. Early benchmarks I have seen confirm that this Basic does indeed bark. Too bad. The Mac is getting enough bad press without all the flak this Basic is going to catch. mike eve