jdg@elmgate.UUCP (Jeff Gortatowsky) (09/18/86)
> I would love to see the reaction of some of you language experts to OSS's > ACTION! for the Atari 8-bitters. It is structured, but reputedly so close to > ........ > If we are REALLY lucky, maybe OSS will come out with an ACTION! compiler for > the ST. Then maybe the DoD will select it to replace ADA!!! > > -John Sangster > jhs@mitre-bedford.arpa Finally! A subject *I* know about.... 8^) ACTION! is owned by ACTION COMPUTER Services, not OSS. OSS merely has the 8 bit rights to sell ACTION!. Clint Parker, the author of ACTION!, is working with Quantum MicroSystems Inc. of Syracuse NY now (under contract?) from his home in Delaware. If I understand the owner of QMI (John DeMar), Clint *MAY* be working on ACTION! for the ST. However it's not even close to being finished and the original will be extended to dispell some short comings of the original language. Personally I think, this late in the game ACTION! may have missed any 'window of opportunity' it might have had. The first paragraph is basically correct as I met with Mr. DeMar only a couple of weeks ago and my brother is presently writing for QMI. The second is pure conjecture on my part. -- Jeff Gortatowsky {allegra,seismo}!rochester!kodak!elmgate!jdg Eastman Kodak Company <Kodak won't be responsible for the above comments, only those below>
braner@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU (braner) (09/19/86)
[] I have a feeling that there are some people out there who are afraid of C or hate edit-compile-link cycles or whatever, use their computer for word-processing and such and keep waiting for a programming language they feel like using. (ST-BASIC doesn't count as a language as far as I'm concerned, and LOGO may be too wierd for many.) I don't know anything about ACTION, but if it is not too low-level maybe it DOES have a market! I posted a while ago that HBASIC, an incrementally compiled BASIC-like language for the ST, is about to come out (beta test version supposedly out now but I havn't got one yet). Its emphasis is on SPEED (including floating-point) and on access to assembly. If there are people reading this and longing for an "easy" language or interactive (but not reverse Polish) environment, let us hear! (Personally I'll stick to C for now, thanks to the 15 sec compile-and- link time with Megamax on a RAM disk - just wish they'd fix those bugs...) - Moshe Braner
Felton.pa@XEROX.COM (09/22/86)
> If there are people reading this and longing for an "easy" language > or interactive (but not reverse Polish) environment, let us hear! You have just described me perfectly. Why can't we have a block structured language and an interactive programming environment at the same time?! The reason that Turbo Pascal and ACTION! are so popular is the integration of the edit/compile/run cycle into one environment. This could be taken a step further by creating an interpreter for development and a compiler for generating the finished object code. Right now I'm using Pascal and Modula II (I can't stand C's syntax). But, as soon as there is a block structured language available that allows memory to memory compiles (or better yet incremental compilation), I am going to switch to it. HBASIC sounds like it could be good, but, I don't know if I would be willing to give up local variables, and complex data structures (does it support these?). It has been my experience that 90% of the execution time that a program uses is due to 10% of the code. Often this code is simple and highly repetitve (moving a block of memory for example). It makes since to implement this part of the program in assembly and the rest in a highly interactive (though possibly slower) language. HBasic just might do the trick. John p.s. Hurry up Clint. I'll buy ACTION! the second that it comes out.