[net.micro] Turbo Prolog, Borland, & Generic Versions

jennings@lll-crg.ARpA (Richard Jennings) (06/13/86)

I have just started to play with Turbo Prolog, and while it may
be a limited Prolog it provided a interesting window system for
strict PC compatibles.  For people interested in human interfaces,
and PC's it is (it seems to me) useful.

As a consequence of the packages emphasis on using the PC efficiently,
I think a generic MSDOS version, while not impossible, would be 
*very* hard because the (screen) I/O  is optimized for the IBM PC.

From my perspective, it seems that it is more of a user interface
breadboarding system than a language compiler;  which will be my
use.

Rich.

kim@mips.UUCP (06/15/86)

[ "Send lawyers, guns, and money ..." ]

> As a consequence of the packages emphasis on using the PC efficiently,
> I think a generic MSDOS version, while not impossible, would be 
> *very* hard because the (screen) I/O  is optimized for the IBM PC.
> 
> From my perspective, it seems that it is more of a user interface
> breadboarding system than a language compiler;  which will be my
> use.
> 
> Rich.

It is a fine idea to exploit the PC capabilities to the max ... I have
no problem with that.  But since many of us must run MS-DOS (TI's, DEC's,
Fujitsu's, etc.) we would be happy having just the "bare" compiler, linker,
etc. without having to have them tied together with windows and such.

If a "front-end" is really required, the TurboPascal editor/control-menu
is more than sufficient.  Sigh!

/kim
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bc@cyb-eng.UUCP (Bill Crews) (06/17/86)

> > As a consequence of the packages emphasis on using the PC efficiently,
> > I think a generic MSDOS version, while not impossible, would be 
> > *very* hard because the (screen) I/O  is optimized for the IBM PC.
> > 
> > Rich.
> 
> It is a fine idea to exploit the PC capabilities to the max ... I have
> no problem with that.  But since many of us must run MS-DOS (TI's, DEC's,
> Fujitsu's, etc.) we would be happy having just the "bare" compiler, linker,
> etc. without having to have them tied together with windows and such.
> 
> /kim

Besides, smart use of DOS screen I/O (like, for instance, using nansi.sys
and large, raw writes to DOS) can net the application developer screen I/O
that approaches the speed of direct screen update.  And it can be portable!
You'd be surprised.
-- 
	- bc -

..!{seismo,topaz,gatech,nbires,ihnp4}!ut-sally!cyb-eng!bc  (512) 835-2266

kim@mips.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) (06/20/86)

[ "Send lawyers, guns, and money ..." ]

> Besides, smart use of DOS screen I/O (like, for instance, using nansi.sys
> and large, raw writes to DOS) can net the application developer screen I/O
> that approaches the speed of direct screen update.  And it can be portable!
> You'd be surprised.
> -- 
> 	- bc -

Yep.  Even using the straight ol' MS-DOS int21 calls one *can* get reasonable
performance.  For example, the TurboPascal editor is alot faster than several
specialty editors I have seen ... and in the generic MS-DOS version, that's
all it does use (int 21's).  In fact, the TurboPascal editor is my editor
of choice for just about everything except applications that really require
"word-processing" capabilities (since <sniff> Mansfield Software's KEDIT is
only available for PC-DOS machines).

/kim
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UUCP:  {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!mips!kim
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