27 Apr
2008
27 Apr
'08
11:08 a.m.
On Apr 27, 2008, at 10:05 AM, Tony Duell wrote:
OK, I was trying to figure out the "right" way to say it. Only IBM
produced PCs have ROM BASIC. None of the other clones did (at least I
don't recall).
There were a number of BASIC demo programs (mainly for the CGA). One
of them was an animated elephant tap dancing to "music" coming out of
the PC's speaker.
When the IBM "suits" showed up to negotiate for C/PM, they were told
"politely" that IBM would only produce a PC when elephants learned to
tap dance and to not waste their time.
I believe the demo was shown during the announcement of the PC (ie
running in the background). I think you see the joke now. :-)
TTFN - Guy
Y'all need to re-read my post a couple of days ago. BIOS was there
mainly for ROM/Cassette BASIC (the *only* PC to do that). The
Was it? (or more correcrtly 'were they?' since the PC/XT, PC/AT,
PortablePC and PCjr also had ROM BASIC). I thought at least one
clone had
an illegal copy of Microsoft BAISC (until Microsoft found out about
it)
and at least one clone had a legal ROM BASIC. original choice for OS was CPM, but that story
has been well told.
What has that got to do with a buggy/incomplete RIOS? Can't a CP/M
CBIOS
be written to use ROM routines rahter than talk to the hardware
directly?
Although I wonder how many people realize the inside joke of one of
the BASIC demo programs? And who says IBM doesn't have a sense of
humor?
OK, I'll bite. I don't know the BASIC demos at all. What's the demo,
and
what's the in-joke?