msnyder@cis.ohio-state.edu (Michael V Snyder) (07/25/90)
In article <1990Jul14.224533.14161@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us> torbenm@diku.dk (Torben [gidius Mogensen) writes: >(Some people may remember the TI 99/4 home computer, which used a 99000 >processor. It was notoriously slow, but this was (I have heard) mainly due >to bad programming and system design). > > Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk) Ah yes. The TI 99/4 was slow only in BASIC, and that was because its basic interpreter was written not in assembler, not in some high level compiled language, but in ANOTHER INTERPRETED LANGUAGE! There was, of course, no way to escape from the BASIC shell and bootstrap yourself into some kind of assembler or compiler without buying extra hardware, since the BASIC lacked any kind of peek or poke instruction. -- Send compilers articles to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us {spdcc | ima | lotus| world}!esegue. Meta-mail to compilers-request@esegue.