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From: toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: apple // and multitasking, perfect together! (??????????)
Message-ID: <1990Mar8.014339.3976@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 8 Mar 90 01:43:39 GMT
References: <14298@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <17861@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
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hassell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Christopher Hassell) writes:

>OKAY OKAY... I know... a totally and utterly disGUSTING mess of self-modifying
>code... 8-year compilation times and LOTS of time/memory simply for loading it 
>in in the first place! <a hacker's dream>

I disagree here. Self-modifying code is only bad in a system which has no use
for it. Very compact (and clever) self-modifiying code can and has been made
to work on a variety of machines, however it does make assumptions about the
memory in which the code runs. On a 6502 system none of these assumptions are
a problem.

I also think that the compiler would not be a real problem either, because the
algorithm used to do the grunge work of the compiler is more a determinant than
the CPU speed.

I often wonder what is really inadequate: the hardware, or the people who write
compilers for it.

I see lots of evidence to convince me that the compiler writers are much more
to blame, because when the hardware doesn't make everything nice and easy it
is a lazy programmer who says "oh well, the machine just can't do that" as
opposed to the hacker who figures out a way or says "I can't find a way to do
that" because he decides it is not physically possible. Programming is my
favorite science because it has room for artistic expression and at the same
time it is cool and precise.

Unfortunately, to far too many people it is simply a way to get paid. I admire
most the people who become part time programmers so that they can use their
computer as a tool. The Apple has a long history of this, and it's what I like
best about it. It's why I don't want an Amiga or Mac or PC, I want to work for
Apple so I can make a //f and then buy one.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu