chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (09/10/85)
For those that hadn't yet heard, the internal Basic interpreter project that
Apple was working on has been cancelled and the interpreter will never be
shipped as a product.
Based on what I read in the paper this morning, this was part of an
agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft gets ownership of some of the critical
internal parts of the interpreter (guaranteeing that the project will not
be started up again later) and will be integrating them into a future
enhancement of their version of Basic. Apple, on the other hand, seems to
have gotten permission to continue using the microsoft basic in the ][
product line (the license was due to expire in 1986).
A number of people associated with the project are evidently rather
upset, and I'm not sure I blame them. The publishers who brought out
books for the interpreter that now will never show are also unhappy.
Everyone that has worked with both Basic's has said that the Apple
version was superior. It's a shame, but it looks like this will
probably work out for the best.
The reality is that Apple's product was quite late to market, and
Microsoft's version has become the 'standard'. I don't think that a second
major player in the market would really do much of anything except create
problems (this program works only with version foobar of product goombah
on alternate thursdays). I can well understand Apple's wish to hold on to
the basic for the Apple ][ line, and if the good parts of their basic do
actually show up in future versions of the Microsoft basic, we all end up
with a better Basic than either of them would have been separately.
--
Chuq Von Rospach nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA {decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui
An uninformed opinion is no opinion at all. If you dont know what you're
talking about, please try to do it quietly.