Applesoft BASIC
Applesoft BASIC (sometimes also called "Applesoft II") was the second version of the BASIC programming language for the Apple II home computer , which followed the integer BASIC . Applesoft BASIC was developed by Microsoft , and the product name originated from the two company names Apple and Microsoft. Applesoft BASIC was developed by Marc McDonald and Ric Weiland .
On the earliest model of the Apple II series, the actual Apple II, Applesoft BASIC can be loaded from a data carrier into the RAM or added as a ROM plug-in card. In all later models of the series - the Apple II + , Apple IIe , Apple IIc , Apple IIgs and Apple IIc + - it is permanently installed as a ROM and is therefore available immediately after switching on. The Applesoft versions of the individual models differ only minimally, in particular none of them support the use of more than 48 kB RAM for BASIC programs, not even in the models that have considerably more RAM memory.
background
Apple's customers wanted a version of BASIC that also allowed calculations with floating point numbers . Since Steve Wozniak , the developer of the Apple II and the Integer BASIC, was too busy developing the floppy disk drive and the associated controller for the Apple II, the development of the BASIC version was given to Microsoft, which was also the BASIC for the Altair 8800 and developed PET for the Commodore ; Applesoft BASIC was in fact essentially identical to the Commodore PET BASIC , extended by some Apple-specific commands, e.g. B. for graphics control. Most of these Apple-specific commands were taken directly from the Integer BASIC. The commands for controlling the high-resolution graphics mode were new, however.
The BASIC version for the Apple was comparable to other BASIC programming languages for computers with the 6502 processor, such as B. Commodore BASIC : The version used line numbers; Spaces between the individual commands in a line were not necessary. In contrast to the Commodore BASIC, all unnecessary spaces were automatically removed when program lines were saved and spaces were automatically inserted between the commands when a program was listed. This reduced the memory requirement and increased readability.
Apple Business BASIC was first shipped with the Apple III computer. Donn Denman ported Applesoft BASIC to SOS and reworked it to take advantage of the extended memory of the Apple III.