RAM Applesoft found!

[Linards Ticmanis <ticmanis@gmx.de>]

Hello,

I've finally managed to locate a copy of RAM Applesoft. This is the 
first available version of Applesoft, intended to be loaded from tape or 
disk into the RAM (mainboard RAM, not language card) of an Integer BASIC 
equipped machine. The copy I got came on a tape together with a demo 
program. Playing it back from a tape recorder into the Apple didn't work 
(probably the tape was too old and/or modern tape decks do stuff to the 
signal that the Apple doesn't like), but some messing with a commodore 
datasette, Markus Brenner's "mtap" program, a bit of cleaning, and a 
little conversion I wrote myself produced a working WAV file that the 
Apple accepted as a valid tape.

If you're interested I can send this to you as a zipped disk image. Just 
drop me a mail.

By the way... I noted that Applesoft is already mentioned in the "Red 
Book", the first Apple II manual that can be called a manual. So it must 
be a really early product. Did Apple themselves arrange for its 
publication, or was it launched by Microsoft? I wonder where, when and 
by whom was the decision taken to drop Integer BASIC in favor of the 
Microsoft code base?

--
Linards Ticmanis