7 Apr
2000
7 Apr
'00
10:09 p.m.
please see embedded remarks below.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2000 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: !Re: Nuke Redmond!
>I heard the same story when I did an internship at Apple in summer '89.
>The way I heard it, the Mac BASIC actually got as far as field test before
the
>On Fri, Apr 07, 2000 at 03:13:47PM -0400, Sean
'Captain Napalm' Conner
wrote:
>> Apple was working on a version of BASIC for
the Macintosh that would
>> resemble VB today in the late 80s/early 90s. Microsoft got wind of it
and
>> threatened to cut their license to Microsoft
BASIC for the APPLE II
(still
>> amoney maker at the time) if Apple actually
released the product.
Apple
>> towed the line and what do you
know---Microsoft produces this very
>> innovative product called Visual Basic shortly thereafter, but for
Windows.
>>
MS needed a quick and dirty way to glue their software's work products
together. This provided and easy interface to other applications from MS as
well as from others. It's become more specialized and less necessary over
the years, though.
>> To my knowledge, the Apple ``Visual
Basic'' never saw the light of
day.
Billy
strong-armed Apple into suppressing it and leaving the BASIC market
to M$.
I more or less agree, except I still have MS Qbasic for the mac, and I
believe that was the product MS threatened with, and still dropped once Apple basic was dead.
If you want to, I'd guess you can find a predatory practice under every
leaf. Do you really suppose that's what this was? Seeing the BASIC go by
the wayside doesn't make me terribly sad, but I've not seen the Apple/Mac
cut at the task. Was it any good?