[net.micro] compiled BASICs

gordonl (11/21/82)

BASCOM is Microsoft's BASIC compiler.  It is a real compiler generating
real (and relatively good) machine code.  Program speeds can increase
from relatively little for programs which spend all their time in the
trig library to several hundred times for programs which use mostly
integer variables.
	The average "vanilla all floating-point" program speeds up by
two or three to 1 because BASCOM performs some optimizations such as
multiplying by .5 rather than dividing by 2, etc.  Most programs make
some use of integer variables and see improvements better than this.

	gordonl
	microsoft

UCBARPA.dag@Ucb-C70@sri-unix (11/24/82)

From: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70 (David Allen Gewirtz)
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Are you actually optimizing by multiplying by .5, or
shifting by 1?

Satisfying random curiosity,
David