Re: Integer BASIC in ProDOS 8

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

KP <kjpmail@gmail.com> wrote:

> ProDOS 8 includes filetype designations for Integer BASIC programs and
> for Integer BASIC variable files (counterparts, presumably, to BAS and
> VAR, respectively).
> 
> Is there any way to load Integer BASIC files in ProDOS BASIC.SYSTEM?

No, apart from treating them as raw binary data.

> Or any other ProDOS interpreter/compiler?  Any way to execute them?

Someone would need to write an "INTBASIC.SYSTEM". It would need to
incorporate the equivalent of BASIC.SYSTEM plus the INTBASIC firmware,
so it would occupy more memory than BASIC.SYSTEM and wouldn't leave as
much for the IntBASIC program.

(Unless you stripped out most of what BASIC.SYSTEM can do, or relied on
a ROM card to supply INTBASIC, which would get tricky with overlapped
language card bank switching in ProDOS.)

ByteWorks did an INTBASIC compiler for the IIgs (with source code) which
probably used the ProDOS INTBASIC file type.

> Was ProDOS Integer BASIC compatibility a form of "vaporware"?

Yes. Apple never released an application to actually run IntBASIC
programs under ProDOS.

The file types were able to be used by conversion tools. I don't know if
I ever tried to convert any "I" files to ProDOS, as there wasn't much
that could be done with them.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz