Re: Integer Basic

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Paul Schlyter <pausch@saaf.se> wrote:

> In article <a2gl1a$gml$1@lust.ihug.co.nz>,
> Roger Johnstone <rojaws@mac.com> wrote:
>  
> > In article <__x28.371$On3.13192@localhost>, cshank@ecn.ab.ca ('') wrote:
> > 
> >> Slick (Slick@noSPAMplease.net) wrote:
> >> : "Mad Martian" <news@madmartian.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> : > What is the procedure for loading and running an Integer Basic program?
> >> : 1. You need a DOS 3.3 boot disk with the following files on it:
> >> : LOADER.OBJ0
> >> : INTBASIC
> >>
> >> You know, I recall a version of Integer Basic that loaded in a 48K Apple
> >> II+ called "INTEGER-BASIC DISK." Because it loads in memory in a different
> >> location than the language card, you could have it loaded at the same time
> >> as PRODOS. You could run smaller Integer Basic programs and not have it
> >> conflict with PRODOS, though PRODOS commands were not accessable when you
> >> were in the Integer Basic environment.
> >>
> >> Anybody else know what I'm talking about?
> > 
> > Yes, I have a copy of it around here somewhere. Years ago I tried it in
> > ProDOS too, but it didn't seem very useful since, as you said, once loaded
> > it unhooked ProDOS and you couldn't load or save any programs.
>  
> It has to, since it clobbers some page zero locations used by ProDOS.

Let's be precise here: it is BASIC.SYSTEM which is getting unhooked, not
ProDOS itsef.  The ProDOS kernel and device drivers use several zero
page locations, but they are mostly preserved over a call to the kernel.

In order to be able to use Integer BASIC easily under ProDOS, someone
would have to write an INTBASIC.SYSTEM which included the functionality
of BASIC.SYSTEM and Integer BASIC itself.  It should be possible to
arrange this to behave like DOS 3.3, i.e. you could use FP and INT
commands to switch languages.  The additional overhead would be about 5
KB for Integer BASIC, plus some additional code to interface with the
interpreter.

> However you _should_ still be able to load and save programs on cassette
> tape... :-)  Loading/saving Integer Basic programs cannot be done on
> ProDOS anyway since ProDOS lacks an "Integer Basic" file type.

ProDOS does have an Integer BASIC file type, and it is used when you
convert an Integer BASIC program from DOS 3.3 to ProDOS using CONVERT
(and presumably Apple II Utilities).