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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: swift240 on December 21, 2016, 04:10:42 PM

Title: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: swift240 on December 21, 2016, 04:10:42 PM
Hi all,
I like to mess about with Amos pro, and when I had my A600 I used to use Amiga Basic that came with the A500.

I can not remember if this has already been talked about but, is there some way that
 I can use Amiga Basic on my A1200?

TIA,

Mike.
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: bloodline on December 21, 2016, 04:26:45 PM
Quote from: swift240;818025
Hi all,
I like to mess about with Amos pro, and when I had my A600 I used to use Amiga Basic that came with the A500.

I can not remember if this has already been talked about but, is there some way that
 I can use Amiga Basic on my A1200?

TIA,

Mike.
IIRC Amiga Basic simply doesn't work on OS 2.0+, so if you wanted to run it you would have to run a "degrader" to boot into OS1.3 (proabably a good idea to disable as much RAM as possible, as I'm sure it freaks out if it detects too much).

The big question is why you would want to run it? Much better to use AMOS or Blitz Basic 2 (Blitz being the better option).
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: swift240 on December 21, 2016, 04:34:28 PM
Aha I just found this little jem in Aminet, I will give it a try and see how it works out.

http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/PtchAmigaBASIC

OK, yes that Aminet program works very well with no bugs.

Mike.
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: bloodline on December 21, 2016, 05:03:36 PM
Quote from: swift240;818028
Aha I just found this little jem in Aminet, I will give it a try and see how it works out.

http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/PtchAmigaBASIC

OK, yes that Aminet program works very well with no bugs.

Mike.
Ah! Yeah, it was the CPU that was the problem with Amiga Basic, no the OS! Good find.
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: ferrellsl on December 21, 2016, 05:29:01 PM
I seem to remember that I also had to disable any Fast RAM by running the NoFastMEM program to get this working too, but that was many years ago so I my be wrong.
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: Fats on December 22, 2016, 04:42:12 PM
Quote from: bloodline;818030
Ah! Yeah, it was the CPU that was the problem with Amiga Basic, no the OS! Good find.


If I remember correctly it was some 'clever' Microsoft hacking that was the problem. 24bit of address space should be enough and the top 8bit of addresses (e.g. pointers in C speak) were used for other purposes.
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: Pentad on December 22, 2016, 07:49:43 PM
Does anybody know who wrote Amiga Basic at Microsoft? I have always wondered and thought their story would be interesting to hear. Considering DOS, Windows, and Mac development was being pushed hard by Gates, I can't imagine there was a lot of love for Commodore or the Amiga.

-P
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: Pat the Cat on December 28, 2016, 07:12:46 PM
Quote from: Fats;818095
If I remember correctly it was some 'clever' Microsoft hacking that was the problem. 24bit of address space should be enough and the top 8bit of addresses (e.g. pointers in C speak) were used for other purposes.

It's way more likely the fault of the compiler used to write the code... although if that was an MS tool, you would still be right. Just not intentionally so.

IIRC, Amiga Basic was dropped in WB 3.0, but was shipped with the A500+ and A600. I am not too sure about that, but it should work on those machines.

Could be wrong about that, but I do remember thinking "Why isn't this included anymore?" and never getting a straight answer from anybody. If it plain didn't work on an A1200, that would explain why it wasn't included with the computer anymore.

EDIT: Yep, wrong, ABasic was dropped in favour of Arexx, which CBM acquired from IBM. Never included with the A500+ or A600 either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmigaBASIC
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: guest11527 on December 29, 2016, 01:30:23 AM
Quote from: Pat the Cat;818313
It's way more likely the fault of the compiler used to write the code... although if that was an MS tool, you would still be right. Just not intentionally so.
AmigaBasic is mixed Assembler/(probably C), and it's rather the matter of the memory management that is not 32-bit clean.


Quote from: Pat the Cat;818313
IIRC, Amiga Basic was dropped in WB 3.0, but was shipped with the A500+ and A600. I am not too sure about that, but it should work on those machines.
No, dropped at v37 (Os 2.0). There was an AmigaBasic 1.3 and also an AmigaBasic 2.0 that was mostly bugfixed, but CBM had to pay one extra dollar per sold machine to MS to allow it to be included, and they went too cheap to make the deal.

Quote from: Pat the Cat;818313
Could be wrong about that, but I do remember thinking "Why isn't this included anymore?" and never getting a straight answer from anybody.
See above. CBM didn't want to pay royalties.

Quote from: Pat the Cat;818313
EDIT: Yep, wrong, ABasic was dropped in favour of Arexx, which CBM acquired from IBM. Never included with the A500+ or A600 either.

CBM didn't accquire anything. Arexx was implemented by William Hawes, and CBM never paid him a penny for it. Bill should have better protected his interest... I'm close to saying CBM just took it (in avoidance of the harsher, but probably correct "stole it").
Title: Re: Amiga Basic on Amiga 1200
Post by: kolla on December 29, 2016, 03:13:13 AM
What did CBM ever pay royalties for?