Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!toddpw From: toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: two questions... Message-ID: <1990Nov5.112859.7962@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Date: 5 Nov 90 11:28:59 GMT References: <8530@darkstar.ucsc.edu> Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 40 unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes: >I doubt Pascal makes a "SYSTEM"-ish file though) Jeez, that seems to be It doesn't. Apple Pascal has no knowledge of Prodos. It might be possible to write a prodos application that acted as a front end to pascal created code. To my knowledge, no one has attempted this yet. > But anyway, as my first experience with a high level language, it >seemed pretty good. My first experiences with Apple Pascal were horrible. I kept overflowing the stack while COMPILING (!!) for no apparent reason (i.e. really small programs). I stuck to BASIC and moved into machine language, and when I got to college, to C. > I also remember that Apple Pascal dealt with 5.25" disks AS FAST >AS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. (Someone told me this). It probably has to due >at least partially with the fact that Apple Pascal makes you keep your >files sequentially on disk (there's a better term for what I mean but I >can't think of it).. there's a function for doing just that in the OS itself. >(You K)runch a disk) This was the best thing about Apple Pascal, and it was refined by the Mac O/S which uses the same scheme ('extents' or strips of adjacent blocks on the disk) except the Mac O/S allowed for fragmentation whereas Apple Pascal did not. With the Mac O/S you get a less efficient disk access if there isn't a free strip for the whole file; with pascal you get a insufficient space message and you have to Krunch the disk before attempting to save it there again. > Also, Apple Pascal deals quite fine with 3.5" disks and RAM disks >(at least on the GS).. And this was before the GS came out, as far as I can >remember. Yep... Apple Pascal was very well designed, but it was truly annoying to work with when you wanted to get down and dirty... this trait is embedded into the Mac O/S and it's the main reason I prefer GS/OS. Todd Whitesel toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu