Re: BBC Basic (Z80) now free

[pausch@saafNOSPAM.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <394FBD66.63E9@earthlink.net>,
Lee Hart  <leeahart@earthlink.net> wrote:
 
> bill_h wrote:
>> Are you saying you're aware of something other than 'it doesn't
>> work' to substantiate a claim of intentionally booby-trapping it?
> 
> I have the Heathkit-supplied CP/M version of Microsoft BASIC-80 for my
> Heathkit H89 computer. As I recall, it had a patch that checked for the
> H89's general purpose I/O port. It didn't need to do this for any
> functional reason; it was just to prevent the Heath-supplied BASIC from
> working on non-Heath machines. Some hunting through old issues of REMark
> and Sextant magazine provided a patch to disable the brand-sensitivity,
> and then it worked on a generic S-100 computer.
 
Microsoft once sold an Apple II CP/M version of FORTRAN-80 for about
1/3 of the price for the standard FORTRAN-80 version.  I had an Apple
II with the Microsoft Z80 SoftCard, running CP/M, and I bought the
Apple II CP/M version of FORTRAN-80.  Later, I switched to the
Appli-Card (another Apple II CP/M card which ran at 6 MHz and had its
own 64K of RAM), and I soon discovered that FORTRAN-80 refused to
run on the Appli-Card.
 
I wrote Microsoft about the problem, and received a reply saying
"Sorry, but the Apple version of FORTRAN-80 doesn't work on the
Appli-Card; you'll have to buy the standard version of FORTRAN-80".
 
I didn't buy it fo course.  Instead I searched F80.COM for code which
checked the presence of a 6502 from the SoftCard.  I soon found the
code, patched it away -- and voila!  The Apple II version of FORTRAN-80
worked fine on the Appli-Card !!!
 
-- 
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