parker@rochester.UUCP (05/23/84)
There most certainly is a fast high-level language available for the 6502. It is called ACTION! (TM Action Computer Services) and is marketed by Optimized Systems Software. It is currently only available for the Atari computer but the C64 version should be out 4th quarter this year. There were initial plans on doing an Apple version as well, but the lack of interest from Apple owners caused that version to be scrappd (8088/86 MS/PC DOS versions should be available 1st or 2nd quarter of 1985). For people who are familiar the BYTE sieve (prime number) bench mark; ACTION!`s execution time is about 10 seconds with register (zero page) variables (1.8 MHz Atari, no screen DMA). This time is better than any other HL language listed for either the 6502 or Z80 (even at 4MHz!)! Even without register variables, ACTION! executes it in about 12 seconds (sorry, I don't remember the exact timings off the top of my head). The source for the sieve compiles off of disk in about 2-3 seconds (most of that time is spent opening the file) and in well under a second from the editor buffer (there is an editor built into the system). Now a little background about the language. First, it generates native 6502 machine code (you probably guessed this already). The code generated normally is 2 to 3 times larger than ASM and runs 2 to 3 times slower, but it depends on the programmer (of either). The compiler is one pass recursive descent and is very fast. ACTION! is not a PASCAL or C compiler, but it does support many of the control structures found in these languages. ACTION! does not support recursion, thus it gets around the problem of needing a 16 bit index register (static allocation for both local and global variables and arrays). If you want more information about ACTION! please let me know. Clinton Parker rochester!parker (uucp) via allegra, decvax, seismo parker@rochester (arpa)