Re: A92: C Compiler on the TI
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Re: A92: C Compiler on the TI
Wow, some optimism! (anybody that has one of those old apples would be able to port a C compiler easily (they use to use the same processor))
Noah Medling
http://xp.calc.org/
---- "Cliff L. Biffle" <cbiffle@safety.net> wrote:
>
> Here we are, in our 700MHz, 256 MB of RAM, 10 GB disk world, looking at the
> TI-92 with its 10MHz processor and 70K of useful RAM (well, more for some
> of us), and saying "A C compiler is impossible." However, 70K is nearly 10
> times as much as PDP-8s had, and they had not only C compilers but
> UNIX. (Well, an extremely early UNIX, anyway.) And that's with a fraction
> of our processing power.
> Very little is impossible on our calculator, at least in the way of
> utilities. (3D simulations will be slow and difficult, but utilities don't
> require that kind of raw speed.) It's mostly a matter of thinking from the
> bottom up, building a compiler for the platform, exploiting its strengths
> and avoiding its weaknesses, rather than trying to port or copy software
> from another platform with entirely difficult capabilities. Sure, we can't
> port GNU C onto the calculator. We can't port Visual Basic, either, but
> that doesn't stop us from writing a BASIC interpreter like the 6K or
> smaller one on my TRS-80.
> I know it's a cliche, but we need to think outside the box. Or rather,
> inside the box--the little plastic box with the keys on the front. :-)
> --Cliff Biffle
>
> Optimist: This glass is half full.
> Pessimist: This glass is half empty.
> Cynic: They drank my water. Figures.
> Engineer: The glass should be -half- this size!
>
>
>
>
>
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