Date   : Mon, 19 Apr 2004 19:22:07 +0200 (BST)
From   : Johan Heuseveldt <johan@...>
Subject: Re: Anyone seen a BASIC III?

Hi Robert,

On Sun 18 Apr, Sprow wrote:

> Hi, I'd like to do some compatibility testing on the various utilities I
> wrote for BASIC II which make some assumptions about zero page locations,
> however looking through my box of bits I can only find BASIC I and II (and
> IV in the Master) ROMs.
> 
> So - has anyone seen a BASIC III? I'd be grateful if someone had one for
> sale or as a ROM image possibly. The easiest way I can think of to work out
> if you have one is to type
>  10 COLOR 128
>  LIST
> 
> if the listing has changed to
>  10 COLOUR 128
> 
> then you have BASIC III (or you typed it in on a Master with BASIC IV by
> mistake!).

There's something about it in:

 1: Archimedes BBC BASIC GUIDE, Appendix H - BBC BASIC's history (page 427)
 2: BBC BASIC Reference Manual. Appendix I - BBC BASIC's history (page 439)
      sub title: BASIC VI

and both are the same: (BASIC III)

    This was supplied on the BBC Microcomputer model B+. It
    was substantially unchanged from version !!. There were one
    or two bug fixes, and a new keyword: the Amarican spelling of
    the COLOR statement.


In February I did some cleaning work on a B+. The machine is still
in the neighbourhood, so I replaced the Master with the B+.

The B+ starts up in BASIC, and I type:

  REPORT

The respons is:

  (C)1982 Acorn

which is the same as for BASIC II in a normal model B.
ATM I can't be sure it is BASIC III or not.

In the B+, BASIC and MOS are in the same physical ROM (32K), and
the ROM id cannot be compared to single BASIC ROMs.

Doing the above test shows the same word 'COLOR' after LISTing. So I think
it's not BASIC III but just version II.


Another test is:

  111COLOR 129
  112COLOUR 130

LIST gives the same output.

Saving as a file and then dumping it gives:

  0000  0D 00 6F 0D 43 4F 4C 4F  ..o.COLO
  0008  52 20 31 32 39 0D 00 70  R 129..p
  0010  09 FB 20 31 33 30 0D FF  .. 130..

which clearly shows the untokenised word 'COLOR'. Both normal B and B+ show
this dump result.

Can't help you any further, sorry.


greetings,
johan

-- 
Johan Heuseveldt <johan@...              >
  aka  waarland

  The best place is a Riscy place
 
Bizarreness is the essence of the exotic