Satgen385   What Software Language ?    by GM4IHJ           10 Aug 96

There are nearly as many computer languages these days, as there are
national languages. Which can create confusion , if the software you
purchase uses a high level language your computer cannot handle.
Computers operate internally using a Low Level binary language
appropriate to the central processor microchip . The confusion arises
at the "High Level Language " entry point to the computer when you
address the software program in memory from the keyboard or mouse,
before your computer translates the high level language software input
into the low level language acceptable to the CPU micro.

Lots of High level languages have come and gone in the last 40 years.
But for radio amateur trackers and users of satellites , the only high
level languages that mattered belonged to the BASIC family. Other
languages such as Forth and Pascal have appeared , but despite their
considerable advantages , they have not been talken up widely.

Friendly old micros ( ZX81, TRS80,IBMPC etc) all used derivatives of
Dartmouth Basic an Interpreted Basic which operates one line at a
time. Programs were easy to write but slow to operate. Most micros
came fitted with either IBM Basica or its alter ego GWBASIC. Lots of
software still appears in this language and you can easily get copies
of it , if your new micro does not have it installed when purchased.
Given todays high speed computers Eg Pentiums, GWBASIC should be fast
enough for anyone requiring simple non windows software.

But BP (before Pentiums). Speed was all some folks craved . So
Boreland produced a COMPILED Basic - Turbo Basic which eventual became
Power Basic and QBasic. Compiled programs require that you write your
software then compile it into Low Level language which can be fed
direct to the micro Central Processor. Compiled programs are difficult
to get right but once compiled correctly they run fast. Though this
hardly matters now Pentiums  can process GWBASIC very quickly.

Then Microsoft produced WINDOWS , a quite different operating
environment. Windows programs are written using VISUAL BASIC. There
have been several versions of this compiled language, which first
worked with MSDOS . Today in 1996 VB3 is the language for 16 bit
computers and VB4 is for 32 bit computers. Even more complex VB4 comes
in 3 versions ( Standard, Professional, and Enterprise), in order of
increasing power and price. Visual Basic is not supplied ready fitted
to new micros. Worse still it has been incompatible with Macintosh
Apple computers and IBM OS2 computers , working only on micros
carrying Microsoft Windows 3 , 95 or NT operating systems.

Apple users will rightly say they have had a better system for years.
BUT, as Napoleon demonstrated "God is on the side of the big
battalions". There are far more Windows system micros in circulation,
so software writers write their programs with big sales in mind, and
that means Windows. Apple micros can be adapted via IBM emulators to
run Windows software, but it does slow things up. Perhaps however this
could be changing as Apple and Microsoft have finally started talking
and there just may, one day ,be an end to incompatability problems.