Subject: [Coco] 512K Basic by Microcom

[Robert Gault]

Stephen H. Fischer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Are you saying that there is no Disk support for saving programs?

No.

> 
> The words you quote say "hard disk".
> 
> How about Program disk I/O?
> 
> If there is disk support, then it sounds like the command set is unchanged
> for DECB.

As I said, there is no change in any Basic command. There is disk I/O 
but how would you save a 400K Basic program on a standard floppy?

> 
> If you can find the 4 page manual and can sent me a  scan it would be
> appreciated.

I don't have any scanning equipment and if I did, the scan would be of 
little use to you or anyone else as the are no commands special to 512K 
Basic.

> 
> Even the list of errors would be interesting as that might reveal how the
> program works.

The is no list of errors.

> 
> If there is no way to store the programs, then it is very useless.
> 
> I cannot believe that anything was released (escaped) without the ability
> to save programs. The developer(s) themselves would need to be able to
> do this during the development.

You have a strange way of reading messages. I never said there was no 
disk I/O, only that there was no support for hard disks. That means only 
standard size Basic programs can be saved which reduces the utility of 
512K Basic.

> 
> 
> thanks
> 
> Stephen H. Fischer
> 
> 
> Robert Gault wrote:
> 
>> I have the program but don't use it. There is a 4 page "manual" that
>> comes with it of which only two pages describe the program.
>>
>> There is no command set other than EXEC 465 which prints a diagnostic
>> list of numbers for Microcom.
>>
>> The program uses the memory for DLOAD and cassette commands so these no
>> longer exist. Apparently the only thing that 512K Basic does is keep
>> track of your Basic program size and extend the available memory. On a
>> 512K system with default program options, there is 408K for program
>> memory and 16K for variables.
>>
>> 512K Basic will not be compatible with RGBDOS or HDBDOS and probably not
>> with ADOS.
>>
>> The value of this program is questionable as on most Coco systems there
>> would be no way to store the large programs created under 512K Basic.
>> This is stated by Microcom who also said, "Future Versions of 512K Basic
>> will support hard drives." I don't know whether they got further than
>> the version 1.0 which I have.
>>
>> Stephen H. Fischer wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> If this is a line number Basic using a very similar command set, I would
>>> be interested in any details.
>>>
>>> Perhaps someone can point us to Rainbow ads or a review for more on the
>>> command set.
>>>
>>> Stephen H. Fischer
>>>
>>>
>>> Brian Palmer wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Kevin,
>>>> This is a simple overview of what 512k basic does.
>>>> 512k basic gives you access to the other 490k in basic, which normally,
>>>> you only have access to 22k,plus you can have multiple 24k files in
>>>> different parts of memory, and chain them together to make one big 
>>>> file.
>>>> And it does work with 128k coco3, just minus some features.
>>>>
>>>> Viva La coco
> 
> 
> 
>