GSBasic and more

[jmk3@crux4.cit.cornell.edu (Jay Krell)]

There was a rather fact devoid GSBasic thread here.
I can't clear things up totally, but here is some info:
 
GSBasic was a product of Apple's. It was available for sale
as a beta version. It was never finished. I never saw it
but the little I read sounded good - an interpreted BASIC, took advantage
of IIGS memory and allowed access to the toolbox.
 
It is not in my August '91 APDA catalog, but I know it is
in my previous one, I think from '89. I'll dig it up when I can
walk better (sprained ankle) and post the blurb.
 
The author of GSBasic (John Arkley? my memory is fading...)
went on to write the Apple 3.5 driver for System 5, which, last
I read, is superior to the Macintosh floppy driver.
 
GSBasic has _something_ to do with a Basic Apple was developing
for the Apple ///, but I don't know the details.
 
Anyone out there have a copy of GSBasic and manual?
I'd be interested in buying it.
 
The thread made reference to TML and Morgan Davis.
I do believe TML did ship a BASIC compiler. I don't know
its capabilities, but don't think it is related to GSBasic.
 
Morgan Davis still sells a cool product, I forget its name,
that takes a BASIC dialect far superior to Applesoft, labels
instead of line numbers, long variable names, I think procedures with parameters,
imported libraries, and compiles it to highly optimized (highly
unreadable) Applesoft. There is a cool demo on GEnie.
 
I think it is called MD-Basic. It has its own desktop environment
and also runs as a language under the ORCA shell and presumably GNO.
(You just change its filetype to EXE or S16 to set how it runs.)
 
They also have a powerful BASIC debugger. These two and one 
other product sell for $99 together.
 
ByteWorks sells an Integer BASIC compiler, with source code
and a thin "book" explaining the source. I ported by
Applesoft Tetris to it and the speedup was considerable.
 
Micol also sells compiled IIe/IIc and IIGS BASICs.
The IIGS version allows toolbox access.

ps- I think the bowling game in System 6 was "written" with
ORCA/Integer Basic.