Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!nosc!crash!gnh-tff.cts.com!dzimmerman
From: dzimmerman@gnh-tff.cts.com (Daniel Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: info for the masses
Message-ID: <7175@crash.cts.com>
Date: 24 Jan 91 04:16:05 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Lines: 25

>> There is no way any 'C' compiler on the Apple IIGS can handle the 180,000
>> lines of code that make up Mathematica....      (paraphrased... :)

Well, see, if someone were to port this program to the Apple IIGS, they
wouldn't have to compile the whole thing in one shot... First of all, with
enough memory, ORCA/C could handle an infinite number of lines... Not only
that, but it's completely ANSI C compatible, as well... But, see, on the IIGS,
you take advantage of the System Loader and write things in SEGMENTS... If you
compile each segment seperately (not fun, but it works - not that compiling the
whole thing at once wouldn't, with ORCA/C 1.1, as far as I know), you don't
need to worry about the 180,000 lines of code... 
As for the "slowness factor", if the program's written well, it won't be
as s....l....o....w as you make it sound... An accelerated machine does help
for that, and any serious users of a program that is so CPU-intensive that it
is that incredibly slow will most probably have an accelerator anyway. 

(donning fireproof suit ;)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel M. Zimmerman             InterNet - dzimmerman@gnh-tff.cts.com
  TFF Enterprises       America Online - Surak TFF    CompuServe - 76407,2246
 
"Learn reason above all. Learn clear thought; learn to know what is from what
seems to be, and what you wish to be. This is the key to everything: the truth
of reality, the reality of truth. What IS will set you free."
                                                        - Surak Of Vulcan