UCSD P-System & "compile once, run anywhere"

From: Douglas H. Quebbeman <dquebbeman_at_acm.org>
Date: Tue Apr 2 11:12:01 2002

I don't think the following post ever made it to the list, during
the time my office's domain cesed to exist for a short time...

> A friend was claiming that with the UCSD P-System, one could "compile once"
> and then "run anywhere" (where "anywhere" means different kinds of
> computers running the P-System, not different instances of
> the same computer).
>
> Was this true?

I've never seen it contradicted. [...until I saw some replies here...]

> Did users commonly compile on system A and then take the P-Code to
> system B and run it successfully?

It wasn't likely common. [..aforementioned media problems interfered?..]

> I'd have thought that media incompatibility would have tended to
> limit this capability.

Serial ports and modems would more or less get around this problem.
[..but it would appear that serial ports baffle quite a few many people..]

> Was any commerical P-System software sold that was a single binary,
> but the vendor expected the user to be able to install/run it on
> any brand/model of P-System? (Or, did vendors have to produce a version
> for every platform?)

The Smalltalk-80 System also used an interpreter, called the bytecode
interpreter, and it was in fact common to take an application compiled
on, say, a Xerox Dorado and run it on a Xerox Magnolia, or even a
Tektronix box. I've seen references recently to an Alto version of
Smalltalk-80 2.2, so the apps crafted at XSIS (Xerox Special Information
Systems) like The Analyst(tm), might have been worked out on Altos
then run at the The Company on Magnolias.

-dq

I know of at least 1 person who has a copy of The Analyst, which I almost
bought in 1987 (I was just going to buy ASP, the Analyst Spreadsheet)...
wish we could get him onboard in the preservationist movement


-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixsnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"]
  Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply
  "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits
Received on Tue Apr 02 2002 - 11:12:01 BST