On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 11:19 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org <mailto:vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org>> wrote:

(Machine is better known as the ​​ Compaq Portable III.)

Can someone point me to a PDF of the Compaq Portable BASIC manual? (I believe it's IBM Advanced BASIC version 3.3, but I'd like to see the Compaq manual.)

​just thinking out loud here, since that Compaq portable is from 1987 and GW-Basic is from 1983​, it superseded BASICA which was originally intended for IBM PC's

Yeah but it says at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_BASIC#IBM_Advanced_BASIC that "BASICA versions were the same as their respective DOS, beginning with v1.00 and ending with v3.30," so it's not as if the computers in 1987 were still using the original 1981 version.

and GW-Basic was intended for non-IBM compatibles such as Compaq

Good point...

BTW, the  Compaq Portable III says it has a 286 not a 386

Well technically the computer I borrowed from Glitch in 2016 (which is the basis for me asking this question) was a Network General Sniffer. It's a Portable III in disguise .... could have sworn it was a 386. I'm sure someone on this list knows the answer(s) definitively.