keast@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (Kenneth East) (06/25/87)
A friend has about a dozen BASIC programs that he currently runs on IBM 5120's. He'd like to have them ported to his new PS/2's. The dealer he got the PS/2's from says it's impossible (what's new). I know (think) that the actual code can be transferred with little effort, but I am concerned about compatibility between 5120 BASIC and Microsoft BASIC. I haven't had the (mis)fortune to work with either version. Can anyone give me any idea as to the amount of work required to keep MS BASIC from puking on the 5120 stuff? Any info will be greatly appreciated! ======================================+================================= UUCP: ..!harvard!bu-cs!bucsf!keast | ARPANET: keast@bucsf.bu.edu CSNET: keast%bucsf@bu-cs | Kenneth East @ Boston University ======================================+=================================
ciaraldi@rochester.ARPA (Mike Ciaraldi) (06/30/87)
In article <1020@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP> keast@bucsb.UUCP (Kenneth H. East) writes: >A friend has about a dozen BASIC programs that he currently runs >on IBM 5120's. He'd like to have them ported to his new PS/2's. >The dealer he got the PS/2's from says it's impossible (what's new). >I know (think) that the actual code can be transferred with little >effort, but I am concerned about compatibility between 5120 BASIC and >Microsoft BASIC. I haven't had the (mis)fortune to work with either >version. Can anyone give me any idea as to the amount of work >required to keep MS BASIC from puking on the 5120 stuff? > I had to port a medium size (1000 line) 5100 BASIC program to Microsoft BASIC on the IBM PC a year or so ago. We wound up typing the source code in by hand, since we had no convenient way to transfer it electronically. Converting the dialects was not *TOO* bad, but was tedious. Most statements were the same. File handling was different, e.g. OPEN and CLOSE. Also, formatted I/O (PRINT USING) was quite a bit different, as I recall. Variable names in the 5100 were very limited in size, so I took the opportunity to change some of them. And string handling was a little different. All in all, not too bad. You may find the book _The BASIC Handbook_ by David Lien helpful. It lists many dialects and has tips on converting between them, but is not conveniently organized. Mike Ciaraldi uucp: seismo!rochester!ciaraldi ARPA: ciaraldi@cs.rochester.edu