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Re: Is it too hard to program for the Apple?

In article <WKGdnd-OD9HIOR7WnZ2dnUVZ_qKdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
 "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

> D Finnigan wrote:
[...]
> > Slower even than Applesoft? That's not the impression that I got.
[...]
> Pascal compiled to p-code, or C compiled to runtime library calls,
> runs perhaps twice as fast as compiled Applesoft, unless it does
> a lot of floating-point arithmetic or graphics library calls, in
> which case the speed is more comparable.

While Apple's UCSD Pascal p-code system trades speed for space, Kyan 
Pascal offers an interesting variation: it can either compile to runtime 
library calls or compile to inline routines. Here's an example that 
inlines the floating point libraries. Of course, the program is just an 
interpreter itself!

<http://home.roadrunner.com/~jbmatthews/a2/calc.html>

I like being able to optimize critical sections of code in assembly, and 
most development tools provide some way to do so. Applesoft has & and 
USR() vectors; UCSD Pascal has a linker; Kyan has inline assembly; and 
typical C compilers offer both.

NadaNet is surely a premier example of mixing Applesoft and assembly:

<http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/NadaNet.html>

Here's an example using Kyan's inline approach to list volumes and tally 
the ProDOS volume bitmap of each:

<http://home.roadrunner.com/~jbmatthews/apple2.html#df>

Here's an example using UCSD Pascal to link separate assembly routines:

<http://home.roadrunner.com/~jbmatthews/a2/zap.html>

-- 
John B. Matthews
trashgod at gmail dot com
<http://sites.google.com/site/drjohnbmatthews>