Date   : Sun, 03 Mar 2002 00:28:56 GMT
From   : pete@... (Pete Turnbull)
Subject: Re: apl, hibasic 87?

On Mar 2, 19:54, W.Scholten wrote:
> Pete Turnbull wrote:
>
> > The only HI-BASIC I've ever come across is Copyright 1983 Acorn, not
1987.
> >  That makes sense, because it was for the 6502 Second Processor and
Acorn
> > had stopped selling them before 1987 (which was when the Archimedes
range
> > was launched -- June 1987).  If there was another version, I'm sure I'd
> > know about it, as I worked for an Acron distributor until 1987, and in
> > Acorn Sales from January 1987.
>
> Acorn probably didn't sell it itself; that's the impression I get from
> the ads (probably not worth the effort for them).

Acorn sold HiBASIC for the 6502 Second Processor and later for the Turbo (I
checked, the Turbo version is actually slightly later, so I was wrong about
that, but still only 1984).  I'm sure there was no later version produced
in-house.

> The master turbo also
> uses a 6502 2p (4MHz, slightly different CPU but that's not the point),

Not exactly, it's a 65C102, which is somewhat different (different pinout,
different clocking, extended instruction set), the RAM is different, and so
is some of the interfacing.  The Turbo was a different design.

> so 'stopped selling them before 1987' I cannot agree with. And you'd be
> surprised what people don't know/hear/notice about the products they
> sell (like a dealer not knowing about certain service manuals!). And if
> Acorn didn't sell it, a distributor obviously wouldn't come across it.

In 1987, I was Acorn's Northern UK Sales Manager, and I was closely
involved with the Turbo and the coprocessor box (officially known as the
"Universal Second Processor Adaptor" which was sold to allow copros to be
used on Masters and Beebs, since the original 2P's were no longer
available), so I think I do know what I'm talking about :-)

The Turbo is quite a different design to the 6502 Second Processor (I have
one of each in the room beside me now), and although the Turbo officially
 continued to be available even after the launch of the Archimedes, the
6502 2P was out of production well before 1987.

> > If you want a copy
>
> Only the 87 version.

I'd be willing to bet there's no 1987 version of HiBASIC, only the 1983 one
-- or else it's a non-Acorn product.  However, there is a copy of HiEDIT on
the 65C102 Coprocessor Support Disc, and there was also supposed to be a
"Hi" version of View.  I can't remember what happened to that, though.

> Tubelink ads mention 'Advanced BASIC' which included the 1987 hibasic
> disc. This might be ABasic so you can find more (esp. the 87 basic) I'd
> be very interested! (I'll OCR the ad if there's interest, see e.g. AU
> nov 1987 p.32)

My colleague Sue Wall was in charge of 3rd Party liaison and support and
might have licensed Tubelink to sell HiBASIC along with their product, but
I suspect not.  If you read the advert (I'm looking at the one in AU Aug
87, which may be different) it describes EXROM which, amongst other things,
provides extensions to HiBASIC -- not HiBASIC itself.  It even says if you
are using HiBASIC, state which version -- so it would seem unlikely
Tubelink supplied it.

> > See http://www.vector.org.uk/prodguid/iapl.htm
>
> Well, these people make a real effort to provide no details whatsoever!
>
> Is is master only? Is it with source code? was it free to redistribute
> as stated it would be? If not, is now free to distribute?

Try asking I-APL?

-- 
Pete                                           Peter Turnbull
                                               Network Manager
                                               University of York