michael@nvuxd.UUCP (M.CAIN) (05/19/86)
I am giving serious thought to writing a threaded interpreted
language for OS-9 (Coco in my case) for all the usual benefits
touted by TIL enthusiasts: acceptable speed, extremely compact,
very fast "compiler", interactive debugging, etc. Before I
start, though, I thought I'd ask if anyone else is working on
such a beast.
The following list are the attributes I consider important in
an OS-9 implementation. Would anyone care to suggest any others?
- Code is reentrent, hence can take advantage of OS-9
multi-tasking without multiple copies of the language
kernal.
- Code is position independent, so OS-9 can load it wherever
it pleases. Similarly, data space for a dictionary, variables,
etc should be obtained dynamically.
- Uses the standard OS-9 file system.
- Provides access to many, if not all, of the OS-9 system
calls.
A straightforward implementation of FORTH, for example, fails
most of these.
This is a non-trivial piece of coding, so again, is anyone else
working on such a language for sale or public domain distribution?
I'm willing to pay some reasonable price rather than re-invent
this particular wheel.
Michael Cain