How to start things like PIECHART.BAS in Dos 1.x? Thanks

You need some BASIC interpreter to run BAS files. There is a version of QBasic on the Windows 95 CD (in \OTHER\OLDMSDOS, IIRC), but I'm not sure it will run on DOS 1.x.

Look for either GW-BASIC, or the MBASIC that was compiled for DOS. Version 5.28 I think it is.

QBASIC can't (I don't think) load binary-formatted BAS files, but the I think QuickBASIC 7 can - but that can't be run from DOS 1 .

DOS shipped with GWBASIC at the time. It is highly unlikely that any version of GWBASIC or QBASIC that was shipped later than DOS 1.* would be compatible at all.

No.

DOS 1 shipped with a version of BASIC that preceded GW-BASIC. There came 2 versions of BASIC with DOS 1; BASIC and BASICA. One was just normal, everyday BASIC, and the other had more advanced functions in it, for more demanding applications. That version was also included in the ROM of the IBM 5150 (PC). GW-BASIC had more advanced grapics capabilities (VGA - came out in 1987, not 1981).

I have used GW-BASIC on a (native) DOS 1.0 environment, to pay the DONKEY game, and some other things .

And as far as I remember, DOS shipped with GW-BASIC from versions 2 to 4, and EDLIN from 1 to 4 - as we know they were both replaced with QBASIC in DOS 5.

What was the donkey game? I remember that GORILLA.BAS was my favorite thing to screw around with in QBASIC when I was little.

Microsoft's ROMBASIC was pretty popular around 1980. The processor itself needed only 4k core, and the applications were encoded by an IEEE binary file. The early IBM computers, like many of the time, came with BASIC in ROM. (IBM no longer do this).

Booting the computer without a boot disk landed you into ROMBASIC. From here, you could insert your DOS 1 diskette, and run some of IBM / Microsoft's prograns, like HAT.BAS (which played the tune 'mexican hat dance'), or DONKEY (a kind of game where you drive down the road, dodging the donkey). IBM DOS 1 came with 23 such .bas scripts, which is whittled down to just one for OS/2 and BASICA 3.40: MORTGAGE.BAS.

In any case, the IBM DOS disks came with two programs that called ROMBASIC from inside DOS: BASIC (disk basic: eg ver D1.10), and BASICA (advanced basic eg ver A1.10). The version of rom basic is always C1.10 (cassette basic), except for the very old (and buggy) C1.00.

Beginning with DOS 5, Microsoft introduced a version of basic that used ascii files, in the form of QBASIC. You can use QBASIC to run simple VBA procedures (much of the interface is the same). QBASIC ships with sample programs GORILLA.BAS. MONEY.BAS. NIBBLES.BAS and REMLINES.BAS. For us who are familuar with old-style basic, the new basic bears as much resemblence as C does to REXX. They share a name.

In any case, BASICA + ROMBASIC comes as a single package GWBASIC. One notes that the basic in DOS 5.0 and OS/2 2.x comes with a BASICA that includes ROMBASIC code. It still doesn't work on clones.

A program hight MOVBASIC was devised to move ROMBASIC to the end of the basic code, so that it could run on any computer. I can easily run IBM BASIC on my clone computer, when processed this way. Without access to an IBM machine, it is rather hard to clone this, but i found an emulator, and prepared the files in there. One needs to modify the source code of Movbasic 5.0 because the emulator is missing bits. Still, they convert nicely, and one is left with a working version.

Basic as "disk basic", vers Dx.xx, ended with 3.20 (released with DOS 3.20), thereafter, it becomes a loder for basica. Basics D3.10, D3.20, A3.10, A3.20 check for the correct DOS, all others run under any DOS. Some versions do not exist with DOS, but are extracted from other sources. A3.31 comes from IBM OS/2 1.1, and A3.40, although represented in PCDOS 5.x and OS/2, the version here is based on A4.00, with changes in the text-version. [that is after all, the only change between these.]

Advanced basic is held for 1.00, 1.10, 2.00, 2.10, 3.00, 3.10, 3.20, 3.30, 3.31, 3.40 and 4.00.

Disk basic is held for 1.00, 1.10, 2.00, 2.10, 3.00, 3.10.

GWBasic comes for vers 1.12, 2.02, 3.22, 3.23, 3.31.

One notes that later versions do not add much extra code, but drivers for more recent video drivers, eg EGA and VGA modes. GWBASIC 1.12 is 59728 b, 3.23 is 80608 kb. IBMs BASICA, when converted by MOVBAS51, gives 69460 b