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Why DEBUG.EXE and not the BASICs that came with MS-DOS? Wouldn't that be much easier?

• Someone 8y ago
  Those required the presence of a version of Basic in ROM (I guess to keep the size of the executable down, not primarily as a license-checking scheme), so they didn’t run on all hardware. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_BASIC#IBM_Disk_BASIC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_BASIC#IBM_Disk_BASIC, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_BASIC#IBM_Advanced_BASIC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_BASIC#IBM_Advanced_BASIC)
  • hakfoo 8y ago
    The IBM BASIC/BASICA used the ROM stuff to an extent, but the free-standing GWBASIC included in MS-DOS didn't.
  • Narishma 8y ago
    That's PC-DOS though, not MS-DOS. AFAIK MS-DOS always came with a disk BASIC that didn't require anything in ROM.