22 Sep
2015
22 Sep
'15
11:23 p.m.
On 09/22/2015 09:06 PM, Jay Jaeger wrote:
That is just because they are so old that, aside from
collectors or
those interested in a particular old machine, nobody ever *bothered*.
By the time C came along, those machines were well on their way to their
eventual demise.
I am 100% certain, for example, that it would be possible to come up
with a C compiler for a 40K IBM 1410, which is in the set you describe.
But even I, as one of the few denizens that are "into" that particular
machine, would not bother with a C compiler for it.
Look, I can probably implement a C compiler (or FORTRAN or GPSS or
JOVIAL or...) in Brainf*ck. But a 1401 C would very likely be
ill-suited to solving numeric problems compared to FORTRAN on the same
platform.
Which is the point. I suppose that it's possible to implement graphics
manipulation routines in RPG II.
After all, languages are supposed to expose features of the underlying
machine to the programmer. If that weren't the case, we'd all be
writing machine code.
Languages don't do anything in and of themselves. You can write
gibberish in any computer language. Similarly, you can also write code
that solves problems.
The argument is one of ease, not ability.
--Chuck