Lisp, the machine language. Was Re: Hallelujah!

From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com <(CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com)>
Date: Sun Apr 4 13:04:30 1999

>the WD Pascal microengine. Why was it done? In the late 70s Pascal was
>emerging as a teaching language and it was highly standardized. Most
>small systems had the resources to run it as native compiled but the
>authors (UCSD) decided that portable Pcode would allow more platforms
>to run it as the Pengine was easier to code than a whole compiler.

Not only that, but the P-code was often more compact than the equivalent
native machine code. (It's probably even more compact than modern
RISCy processor code.) Compactness of code is an enormous advantage in
a limited memory-space environment.

Tim.
Received on Sun Apr 04 1999 - 13:04:30 BST