>> Oh, and when I called it an "interpreter," that's a misnomer. It may
look,
>> walk, talk, and smell like an interpreter, but it's actually a JIT
compiler
>> in disguise... that's why it's so darned fast in comparison to an
interpreter.
>
> Actually, it compiles to an internal byte code that can be interpreted
> faster than parsing text, much like Forth or even Java.
In my experience, very few interpreters actually parse text in real time.
Every BASIC I've used AFAIK reduces keywords to byte codes at the time of
entry, and some actually encode numbers etc. at the same time.
Notable exception: I think REXX parses text in real time, or did when I
used it under VM/CMS.
Philip.
At 11:37 PM 1/14/99 -0800, Sam Ismail wrote:
>
>Remember, C has a goto statement, although I don't think in my nearly 10
>years of C programming I've ever used it, although on certain rare
>occasions it seemed the easy way out to a sticky coding problem.
> [...] but C really suffers from a lack of
>a general error trapping mechanism that one can invoke to break out of
>loops as required. Sometimes I think goto's are the answer but I can
>never find an appropriate way to implement it.
I use "goto" in C on a regular and consistent basis for error exceptions:
USHORT firstFunction( void )
{
USHORT lerr;
if ((lerr=secondFunction()) != TE_NOERROR) {
goto out;
}
out:
return lerr;
}
The benefit is that all functions propogate an error code, any
function can fail, and all functions clean up after themselves
after their "out" label.
- John
Hi Tony and all,
At 10:44 PM 1/14/99 +0000, you wrote:
>I would strongly disagree with that, at least in hardware. I've recently
>been looking at some discrete-transistor logic circuits and the
>creativity that went into their design (IMHO) exceeds anything that I've
>seen done with modern 'black-box' chips. For example, I've seen a
>keyboard encoder (8*8 matrix of keys to 6 bit binary + strobes + ...) in
>about 20 transistors and as many diodes. Much, much more elegant than
>throwing a microcontroller at it.
>
Yes, for example the Popular Electronics keyboard in ~1974 by Don Lancaster
and Southwest Technical Products used a few inverters (RTL) and transistors.
3 transistors sensed which of 8 columns a keyswitch was pressed, and these 3
transistors produced 3 of the ASCII output bits. The 8 row ouyputs produced
3 other bits. Much easier to "fix" than the MOS encoder chip, if that chip
was programmed for a custom matrix, such as the Heath H19 terminal.
-Dave
Hi,
I was digging thru the junk ^H^H^H^H er, ah, treasures at my favorite
scrap dealers a few days ago and found what looked like an Apple IIe except
it was marked "Dapple (something) IIe". I've never heard of a Dapple
computer before. Is there anyone that collects Apple clones and wants it?
Joe
I have this Zenith supersport sx laptop (386, black and white screen i think)
but no power supply.. The label on teh bottom of the unit states that
it wants 16.5 volts, 2 amps... The power connector is one of those small
round plugs, and it has a DC noted next to the plug.
Does anyone know where I could find a compatible power supply?
-Lawrence LeMay
lemay(a)cs.umn.edu
Kirk Davis
>Hey, don't forget that $100 Atari Belt buckle (only one at
>that price!!!) :-)
Perhaps you would be interested in a once in a lifetime offer of an Amiga
CD32 umbrella (never used), or a chocolate tea pot, or...
Anyway, does anyone have experience with Riser ISA cards. I have one
salvaged from a Viglen 25MHz 486 and want to connect it to a Pentium 2. The
Riser card has 6 ISA ports.
This may or may not be a description of your situation, but when I worked at Heath/Zenith, we bought "Gold" floppy disk drives directly from the manufacturers of the drives (Shugart, Tandon, etc.) that were painted gold for use as duplicators in producing the commercially sold software (operating systems, languages and applications). These were hand-calibrated drives with essentially perfect alignment. Not saying that this is what you have, but it is possible.
Barry Watzman
----------
From: Bill Sudbrink [SMTP:bill@chipware.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 1998 10:39 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: RE: Computer paint jobs (was Re: SOL feeding frenzy?)
In one of the Ohio Scientific C2's I have, the face
plate of one of the 8 inch floppies has been painted
gold! The rest of the unit was classic tan/brown
and the guy I got it from had no idea why.
"Lawrence Walker" <lwalker(a)mail.interlog.com> wrote:
> I have that edition in my collection. I have 2 other S.A.s
> that have micro themes. The Nov. 65 issue, one of the articles is
> by Hao Wang , and the Sept 66 which is all computer related
> articles
And I think Scientific American re-published the September 1966 issue
as a book, "Information".
-Frank McConnell
Hi. I've just joined your mailing list.
Currently I'm working on getting a Cromemco Z2 system with dual 8" DSDD
drives setup. I have cp/m 2.2 and CDOS. Unfortunately, I have no docs,
except a cp/m 2.2 manual I downloaded from the web. If anyone has a
similar system, and can make a cp/m 3.0 8" floppy, i'd appreciate it.
My plans are to attempt to rewire a Teac 5.25" floppy drive to make it
appear to be a DSDD 8" floppy drive.
I have several Terak computers in need of serious work. These were computers
that would break down frequently back when they were in service back in tehe
80's, so they break down after being 'repaired' (the contacts seem to go
flakey, both on teh boards and mainly on the socketed ram chips).
If anyone has any technical information on the Terak floppy controller, or
on the shugart 800 floppy drives in the Terak, i'd like to have a copy.
preferrably I would want to setup my 5.25 floppy drive so it can be used
on either computer system, but the Terak uses a 40 pin ribbon cable,
skipping pins 1-10 on the shugart drive. I'm curious as to which connectors
on teh interface cable are actually necessary for the Terak floppy controller
to operate properly.
-Lawrence LeMay
lemay(a)cs.umn.edu
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm new to this list. I've been collecting classic home console computers
> for about two years now and have some items to trade and some things I'm
> looking for (either trade or buy). You can check out my collection on my
> website at http://www.markrandall.com.
Hi Mark.
Afraid I haven't time to look at your website just now, but your list looks
impressive.
Since you're new here, I feel I should tell you: one thing you must
remember on this list, if you are offering anything for sale or trade, YOU
MUST SAY WHERE YOU ARE.
Looking at your list of your collection and your list of wanted stuff
suggests you are not in the UK (as I am), but probably somewhere in the US.
But more than that I can't tell, and it may be important!
Philip.
