SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

17 Aug 2001

On Fri, 17 Aug 2001 23:23:05 +0100 (BST) ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony
Duell) writes:
...
   The assembly
languages I like are ones where the instructions and   addressing modes are
'orthogonal'. That is to say that any 
 instruction can use any addressing mode, and any registers. Like a PDP11 or a 
...
  P800, or to a lesser extent the VAX. 
That was the cool thing about the NS-32000's-- it was designed to be
*very* orthogonal.  I find it very sucky that good design is frequently
hampered by crappy marketing.

...
  The ones I dislike are the ones with all sorts of
special cases (the
 destination operand must be in this register unless it's this mode, 
 etc).  
Well, after having had to program one for a while, the Z-80 definitely
fits into this category.  I strongly suspect that parts from that era 
had these design aspects (e.g. orthogonality) limited by their die size.

________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.