Re: A92: C Compiler on the TI
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Re: A92: C Compiler on the TI
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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