Path: utzoo!attcan!ncrcan!ziebmef!stephen
From: stephen@ziebmef.uucp (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: PC-DOS on compatible system
Summary: using DOS depends on how compatible your system is
Message-ID: <1989May4.231353.877@ziebmef.uucp>
Date: 5 May 89 03:13:52 GMT
References: <3816@peora.ccur.com>
Reply-To: stephen@ziebmef.UUCP (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: Ziebmef Public Access Unix, Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 28

In article <3816@peora.ccur.com> tran@peora.ccur.com (Nhan Tran) writes:
:I have IBM-DOS 3.3 (not MS-DOS).  Can I use it on an AT-compatible?  I 
:remember a while ago I cannot use BASIC supplied on IBM-DOS disk on a 
:compatible system at all.   I am not sure if I can boot a compatible with 
:IBM-DOS.  I appreciate any comment you have.
:
:Nhan Tran

   If your system is 100% compatible (almost all clones are, but some
name-brand compatibles aren't 100%), you can use PC-DOS and it will work
just fine.  As for BASIC, no, IBM's BASIC and BASICA will _not_ work on
a non-IBM system.  This is because True Blue IBMs have a large part of
BASIC in a ROM on the motherboard, and clones and compatibles don't.  The
reason why BASIC.EXE and BASICA.EXE are so small is because they use this
built-in interpreter.  Since your clone doesn't, you'll have to grab a
copy of GWBASIC from somebody else (oh my, I shouldn't advocate that
now, should I? :-)

   But of course, we all know that any _real_ programming is too much to
ask of a standard interpreted BASIC, don't we?  (some might say that
any BASIC is insufficient, but I only have one layer of asbestos)

Regards, Steve
-- 
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! Stephen M. Dunn              stephen@ziebmef.UUCP ! DISCLAIMER:  Who'd ever !
! (I am currently pondering a witticism to go here) ! claim such dumb ideas?  !
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