IBM ROM BASIC or lack thereof

Without the BASIC interpreter we ended up with GW-BASIC, which had some good points but other bad points. I had a Sanyo MBC-555-2 then and it was a bigger mess even than the other clones as it had bitmapped CGA, strange memory mapping, a non-standard BIOS (you had to get Sanyo's own DOS or an aftermarket enhancement, not PC-DOS or MS-DOS off the shelf). I learned a lot from that POS though. -> -----Original Message----- -> From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org -> [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Hans B Pufal -> Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2001 8:56 AM -> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org -> Subject: Re: IBM ROM BASIC or lack thereof -> -> -> Russ Blakeman wrote: -> -> > If memory serves the one real thing that cloners couldn't -> duplicate, maybe -> > due to copyright, was the ROM BASIC but that they'd duplicated -> everything -> > else including the BIOS or a very good part of it. -> -> -> Correct. The main BIOS source code was published in the IBM tech ref -> manuals. The BASIC was not and AFAIK no clone maker ever included a -> BASIC interpreter in the ROM. I don't think anyone missed it. DOS -> always included an advanced BASIC interpreter which was available to all. -> -> > That pretty much led to IBM losing a lot in the PC market. -> -> Unclear. They certainly lost market share, but it can be argued that -> without the clone market the whole personal computer market would have -> been much smaller and diverse and arguably better. -> -> -- HBP -> ->