hall@ittral.UUCP (Doug Hall) (03/18/84)
[ask, and it shall be given]
I had a chance to try out MacPascal and MacBasic (a pre-pre-release
version as far as I know) and I was very impressed. While the graphics were
very nice, the thing that impressed me the most was the speed. A few simple
benchmarks were run using MacPascal and compared favorably to the same
programs run on a Sage IV. I realize that's not a totally fair test, since
the Sage was running the p-system and MacPascal is interpreted (incrementally
compiled?) but it was still impressive. A few benchmarks using MacBasic ran
approximately 3-5 times faster than the same programs on the IBM-PC and much
faster than in Applesoft on my //e. One nice feature of MacBasic is that it
doesn't require line numbers unless you are referencing a line with a goto
statement. The MacPascal environment has a nice syntax checker and a sort
of "pretty program" feature which will take care of indentions, etc.
My overall impression is that MacPascal and MacBasic are worth having
(and waiting for.) I don't know when it will be available, how much it will
cost, or any other details, and I don't know where the version I saw came
from. None of the dealers around here have it, as far as I know.
Good things come to those who wait.