Re: Trying to understand HAL


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Re: Trying to understand HAL



On Thu, 7 Aug 1997 00:21:07 -0400, e e <bike17@JUNO.COM> wrote:

>I am trying to understand the point of HAL.  What I have gathered so far
>is that HAL allows you to take a program written in BASIC, and transfer
>it to ASM.  Ok, I understand that ASM gives you added features that BASIC
>doesn't have, such as gray-scale on the screen, but why in the world
>would you want to transfer a BASIC program to ASM?  It the same source
>code, right?  How is it going to be any better in ASM than in BASIC?
>
>
>
>Eric E. Klos   Mt. Clemens MI  R/C's, HO slots, mountain bikes,
>computers, beginning Go-Kart project

E e Klos, this proves something. You have no clue as to what you are
talking about. As I said earlier, the release of HAL you speak of is a
beta one, and as such, knowledge is required before being able to
understand how to use HAL.

HAL does not take ti-basic proggies and port them to asm. it is a
compiler that takes a form of basic (let's cal it HAL-basic). this
basic looks like good old basic you can find in so many places, but
isn't the same. just like QBasic isn't the same as PBasic isn't the
same as BASICA isn't the same as PDS isn't even close to VBasic isn't
like TIBasic isn't like HALBasic.

hal has loads of functions that aren't supported in tibasic. there are
probably sprite routines and things, and tibasic doesn't. similarly,
some tibasic statements aren't possible in hal. Unless they found rom
code for every single statement. ie: I dont think SIN and COS will
work in halbasic. nor will you be able to use DISP x>Frac. DISP x>Frac
would work in TIBasic. it doesn't in HAL.

As such, hal is a different language. it is aimed at inexperienced asm
programmers.

About that 'better to let people think you are a fool than open your
mouth and prove it', in my definition, trying to force your opinion
when you aren't familiar with the subject isn't all too smart a move.


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