Comparing Micol Advanced BASIC to Applesoft: Age --- Applesoft : Old Micol Advanced BASIC GS : New Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : New Applesoft is over 10 years old, and there's been a lot of progress in computer languages and the Apple II since it was made. MAB takes advantage of the progress, Applesoft does not. Maximum Program and Variable Space ---------------------------------- Applesoft : 36k Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : 73k Micol Advanced BASIC GS : Virtually Unlimited As you can see, MAB IIe/c gived you twice as much program space as Applesoft. And with chaining, your programs can be even larger. MAB GS's program size is limited only by the memory of your GS. You can have programs and arrays up to 8 megabytes, if you have the memory. Highest Graphics Resolution --------------------------- Applesoft : 280 x 192 Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : 560 x 192 Micol Advanced BASIC GS : 640 x 200 Maximum Number of High Resolution Colors ---------------------------------------- Applesoft : 8 Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : 16 Micol Advanced BASIC GS : 4096 Total Graphics Modes -------------------- Applesoft : 2 Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : 5 Micol Advanced BASIC GS : 3 MAB takes advantage of graphic modes that Applesoft doesn't even know exist to give you higher resolution and more colors! Music Commands -------------- Applesoft : None Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : 1 Micol Advanced BASIC GS : 4 Editor ------ Applesoft : Line Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : Full Screen Micol Advanced BASIC GS : Full Screen Frustrated by Applesoft's clumsy line editor? MAB's integrated full screen editor contains many of the features you'll find in your favourite word processor. Local And Global Variables -------------------------- Applesoft : No Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : Yes! Micol Advanced BASIC GS : Yes! Only Micol Advanced BASIC gives you local and global variables, a standard in virtually every modern programming language. Even ZBASIC doesn't have local and global variables. Maximum Recognized Length of Variable Names: -------------------------------------------- Applesoft : 2 characters Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : 62 characters Micol Advanced BASIC GS : 62 characters Your variable names can be as long and as meaningful as you like. Trying to figure out what you were using varible 'Q1' for is a thing of the past. Structured Programming Statements --------------------------------- Applesoft : 3 Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : 14 Micol Advanced BASIC GS : 14 Applesoft's only structured programming statements are FOR/NEXT, GOSUB/RETURN, and ON...GOSUB/RETURN. MAB contains many standard structured programming commands like REPEAT/UNTIL, WHILE/WEND, FOR...UNTIL, CASE, IF...THEN BEGIN...ELSE BEGIN...ENDIF, FUNCtion, PROCedure, ROUTINE, and many more. Speed ----- Applesoft : Slow Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : Fast Micol Advanced BASIC GS : Fast MAB is a compiled language system (not just a compiler, though!) which converts your programs to true machine language, which is far faster than interpreted Applesoft, especially on medium and large programs. Technology Level ---------------- Applesoft : Ancient Micol Advanced BASIC IIe/c : Modern Micol Advanced BASIC GS : Modern In the computing industry, software which is 11 years old is considered ancient. Micol Advanced BASIC is new, and contains everything you expect in a modern programming language.