djmolny@wnuxb.UUCP (Molny) (06/18/84)
< clean your plate; there are bugs starving in asia... > Thought I'd share two nasty problems with Microsoft BASIC on the Mac. 1) When saving a large program (by selecting SAVE from the FILE menu), one must wait for the disk to finish spinning before selecting another FILE option (especially NEW, OPEN... or QUIT). Otherwise, the disk write is truncated. This happened several times before I made the connection. I sent Microsoft a bug report on this one. 2) A large quantity of LPRINTs can overrun the Imagewriter's buffer if the printer is set for XON/XOFF protocol. Selecting DTR protocol (by opening dip switch 2, bit 3) fixes the problem. I haven't tried MacWrite or MacPaint with the printer in this mode, but I suspect there will be problems since they worked fine with XON/XOFF. Waiting for "C", DJ Molny, ccom consultants, inc. at AT&T Technologies ihnp4!mgnetp!hw3b!wnuxb!djmolny
lra@aluxe.UUCP (Lonnie R. Abelbeck, AT&T Bell Labs) (06/19/84)
You have only uncovered the surface, by no means does Microsoft BASIC even come close to utilize Mac's power. Some of the things Microsoft screwed-up on are: o When you do an OPEN, you are faced with a single blank box you are supposed to type your filename into. NO scroll bars containing a list of the filenames, NO way to easily access a second drive. This is fine for the IBM-PC, but NOT the Mac. o No COM statement to configure the communication ports. You have to poke in assembly programs to do this. o No sound support of any kind. (Unless you count ^G :) ) o Small working space, <20K if you want the desk accesories to be reasonably responsive. o No way to size the output window from within the BASIC program. o LPRINT doesn't configure the printer port correctly, you must do a screen dump before you do a listing so the XON/XOFF handshaking is performed. o When you do a RENUM the listing window gets burried. agrivating! o No way to cut and paste groups of lines within a listing. I realize that this is tricky with line numbers, but it can be done. Whew! I feel a little better getting that off my chest, but Microsoft!! you can do better, MUCH better. Unless you want sales to drop to zero when the next language comes out, please bless us with an update that makes MS-BASIC a program for the Macintosh, not an IBM retrofit. Awaiting for 'C' also Lonnie R. Abelbeck AT&T Bell Laboratories mhuxi!aluxe!lra
kim@analog.UUCP (Kim Helliwell ) (06/20/84)
I, too am dismayed by the problems with uSoft BASIC for the Mac. It really seems they have not done a careful job. That, coupled with the horrendous bugs in Multiplan, which cause worksheets to be trashed, makes me wonder how uSoft got the reputation they seem to enjoy. They certainly need to clean up their act! But I think it could be viewed from another angle: uSoft is one of the few companies to have *anything* available for the Mac when the Mac was announced. Yeah, they got in a hurry, but because of that, we can do some work with the machine besides draw pictures and write memos! That counts for something in my opinion. The only alternative to BASIC for writing programs is Forth from Creative Solutions (??), and not being sure I want to learn Forth (or froth!), BASIC is my choice for now. I certainly am glad that it *is* available, even if it is a bit buggy. I sure hope that uSoft will be open-handed with those of us who bought the early version of BASIC if and when they do generate an improved version. I think their attitude toward their customers in this regard is more important than the particular failings of the current version. ALSO waiting for C - - Kim Helliwell hplabs!analog!kim