Re: LZ: programs in zshell


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Re: LZ: programs in zshell



On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, Ed Plese, Jr. wrote:


> Would it be possible to come up with a whole new language for 
> programming directly on the TI-85?  It could use variables stored in 
> programs so that they could be edited.  Then, they would be run 
> through a program in ZShell.  It could be somewhat like TI-BASIC, but 
> it would be faster because it wouldn't have all of the functions of 
> TI-BASIC.  Yes, it would be slower that a regular ASM program, but 
> faster than a TI-BASIC one.  It would also be larger than an ASM 
> program and around the size of TI-BASIC ones.  It may be pointless, 
> but it would be pretty cool.
 
The problem with this is the space it will take up in ram.
It'll have to compete with TI basic, which is in rom with lots
of room.


One good choice of language for this would be Forth.  It's small
and fast.  It could also have access to some of the TI rom routines.
I modified a Forth called mini-forth to take advantage of the
special features on the 200lx.  It wasn't that difficult.  The
original author sent me the assembly source to work with.


The problem with Forth is that it's a strange language that requires
the programmer to think in new and different ways.  A lot of people
just dont like it.  And it has a reputation for being unreadable,
although it's not really that bad.


I think a good basic Forth interpreter could be written in 3 or 4k.
The core routines in the one I modified were about that size, but
I think it was more like 12 or 13k with all the goodies added.


Barry


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