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From: ee161abt@sdcc18.ucsd.EDU (Grobbins)
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Subject: Re: buying the //gs
Message-ID: <551@sdcc18.ucsd.EDU>
Date: Wed, 15-Oct-86 13:27:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcc18.551
Posted: Wed Oct 15 13:27:08 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 18:54:30 EDT
References: <316@husc6.HARVARD.EDU> <2110@ecsvax.UUCP> <546@sdcc18.ucsd.EDU> <2124@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: ee161abt@sdcc18.UUCP (Grobbins)
Distribution: net
Organization: U.C. San Diego, Academic Computer Center
Lines: 30

In article <2124@ecsvax.UUCP> ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) writes:
>Although the processor is new, it is not that different from the 6502
>in terms of writing assembler, the same ole stuff plus some new, nice
>features.  The new features are where the power is but it still is not
>like learning a new uP from the ground up.
>
>I expect new stuff will start to come out quickly, six months to a year
>rather than a year to 18 months (as with a new Machine like the Mac or
>Amiga) because there are a lot of 6502 programmers out there and they
>smell money out there in programming for this new machine.

Perhaps this isn't the place for opinions about the chip, but nice
new features?  Gack.  Programmers of the 6502 contented themselves
with the knowledge that, while they were programming an old chip, it
was a good representative of the 8-bit generation, and there was an
enormous installed base.  The 65816 would be an embarrassment if
compared with other "late 16-bit generation" processors.  It lacks
the instruction extensions the 6502 really needs; it mainly just
adds what's necessary to support the 24-bit addressing, and widens
the registers to 16 bits.  Will programmers really like switching
from the simple 6502 to a version with banked memory?

I'll grant that it's somewhat better the using the old chip, but the
only reason that Apple or anyone else would really touch the thing,
I suspect, is compatibility and what Ranger aptly called
the smell of money.

Grobbins.
"Most people never mature; they just grow taller."
- Leo Rosten