Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!yale!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: apple // and multitasking, perfect together! (??????????)
Message-ID: <12329@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 9 Mar 90 22:41:36 GMT
References: <14298@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <17861@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <1990Mar8.014339.3976@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 14

In article <1990Mar8.014339.3976@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu> toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) writes:
>I often wonder what is really inadequate: the hardware, or the people who write
>compilers for it.

In the case of the 6502 family, the hardware architecture really does
adversely constrain the quality of correct implementations of high-level
languages.  (It is easier to produce an implementation that doesn't
properly or fully support the language.)  This has nothing to do with
the motivations of the compiler writers; the relation between machine
arhcitecture and language implementation quality is well known in the
industry.

Anybody who doubts this should try to produce his own implementation
before passing judgement on others'.