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From: braner@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU (braner)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Re: Action!, FaST BASIC and cartridges
Message-ID: <1095@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU>
Date: Wed, 24-Sep-86 11:01:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: batcompu.1095
Posted: Wed Sep 24 11:01:09 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Sep-86 05:03:12 EDT
References: <8609232056.AA06071@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: braner@batcomputer.UUCP (braner)
Organization: Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 27
Summary: Please let's have a disk version too!

[]

Putting a language on a cartridge seems popular to some.  It is certainly
a potent version of copy protection, which doesn't really need a back-up.
My gripe is that it is not as easy to swap cartridges as disks, so I'd
rather put something in the cartridge port that would be universally
useful and will be left there all the time.  Sort of like that clock
board, although luckily we can (?) now put a clock inside the box.
My own favorite candidate is a floating-point coprocessor board.
In any case, hardware, not software. (Never mind what Atari thought
it made that connector for - and damn the stupid write-protection of
the cartridge address space!)

A program in ROM will also have bugs left in longer (or forever) - e.g.
Applesoft BASIC.  (Hopefully not TOS...)  Also, some people like to modify
their software!  (I, for one, have modified the Apple II monitor ROM
and will probably redo TOS eventually if Atari doesn't.)  Disk versions
(unprotected) are a lot easier to modify = user friendly.

Then of course, if a certain language is your DAILY working environment
you would like it in ROM.  How about an OPTION of getting it on a cartridge,
in addition to the disk version, which is more appropriate for other buyers?

BTW, FaST BASIC sounds sort of like HBASIC.  Is it incrementally compiled?
It would be interesting to compare them, when HBASIC comes out.

- Moshe Braner