Subject: [Coco] 512K Basic by Microcom

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,

John R. Hogerhuis wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-12-04 at 07:42 -0500, Robert Gault wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> Isn't it possible to merge disk basic programs together? I have a vague
> recollection that it is possible. I'm certain you can chain programs
> together, but I suspect you can merge them too. If that's the case, then
> you could save different files to different floppy's and swap them in
> one after another during load.
>
> Not that it is practical to do so... alternatively you could have the
> first link in the chain be a decompressor, so maybe you could fit a huge
> program on one diskette.
>
> Also it was mentioned you only get 16K of variable space. That kind of
> stinks. Considering BASIC uses descriptors for strings one would think
> you could make a lot better use of extended RAM.
>
> -- John.

Only 16K of variable space? If true, then why did they bother?

As Urbane can be easily ported to other basics without the severe 
limitatations of the CoCo and that the resulting "RUN Versions" are so very 
much smaller, if 512K basic provides more space that the program can use 
without it, then it might be very useful for some tasks.

Stephen H. Fischer