Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #16136

Re: And this is what is called a SPANK

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

Show key headers only | View raw

On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 04:58:00 +0000, glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:

> In comp.lang.java.programmer Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> wrote:
> (snip, someone wrote)
>>> Wow, even the name is pointlessly abbreviated to be missing one vowel.
>>> Does it date back to when machines had a few KB of core and even one
>>> byte of extra computer code could be a storage problem?
> 
>> Of course not. Not that that would have been an excuse even so. The old
>> Commodore VIC-20 had a BASIC interpreter and that language had full,
>> readable keywords like PRINT rather than abbreviated garbage like, say,
>> PRN. Commodore employed a clever trick: BASIC programs were stored (on
>> disk and in memory) *compressed*, with all of the common keywords
>> replaced with graphics characters with the high bit set.
> 
> The HP TSB2000 (Time Shared BASIC) systems did that, too.
> 
> Not only that, it would refuse to allow you to enter a statement that
> didn't pass some syntax checks.

That's not uncommon in the better-designed systems (i.e., not C family 
languages). The Emacs paredit mode for working with Lisps is probably the 
example most likely to be familiar to someone who wasn't around for the 
micro era. It won't let you enter syntactically broken Lisp, though it 
can be semantically as bogus as you please (and verifying with certainty 
that it wouldn't be would be equivalent to the halting problem anyway). 
Of course, with Lisp that basically boils down to just "it won't let you 
have unbalanced parentheses". ;)

> Many of the microcomputer BASIC interpreters were based on the ones from
> Microsoft, but even if not, the tokenizing compression was well known by
> then.
> 
> Not only does it save memory, but the interpreter runs a lot faster! The
> tokenizing is done only once, not each time the statement is executed.

Those microcomputers needed every erg of speed they could get, too. A 
VIC-20 ran at what, one measly *mega*hertz? The box I'm using to post 
news with is somewhere around five *thousand* times that speed, in raw 
cycle throughput, and can probably do a lot more with each cycle to boot. 
It could emulate a large network of hundreds of VIC-20s in real time if 
it wanted to. And there are other boxes nearby that make *it* look like a 
joke.

And even then, the interpreted languages of now tend to both compile to 
bytecode (either manually, or when first run) and then to be potentially 
JITted to architecture-native code by the VM. Bytecode is a step further 
than the BASIC compression tricks discussed, and JITting is a giant 
*leap* further still.

Back to comp.lang.java.programmer | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Re: And this is what is called a SPANK "CastAlone " <ca@ca.org.example> - 2012-07-15 21:53 -0400
  Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-16 03:04 +0000
  Re: And this is what is called a SPANK ent0loma <ent.0_l0m-4@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 02:08 -0400
    Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-16 07:27 +0000
      Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-16 13:07 -0400
        Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-16 22:06 +0000
          Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-17 15:57 -0400
            Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-17 21:40 +0000
              Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-18 16:44 -0400
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-19 01:11 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-19 03:18 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-19 16:06 -0400
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-19 23:55 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-19 20:36 -0400
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-20 01:26 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-19 23:59 -0400
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-20 04:44 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK "%" <persent@gmail.com> - 2012-07-19 21:55 -0700
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-20 03:09 -0400
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK [Tor] Phoenix <tahosa@usa.TAKETHISOUT.net> - 2012-07-20 04:30 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK kensi <kensi_kensington@zoonoses.de> - 2012-07-20 00:38 -0400
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-07-20 04:58 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Checkmate <LunaticFringe@The.Edge> - 2012-07-19 22:50 -0700
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-07-20 05:55 +0000
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK mixed nuts <melopsitticus@undulatus.budgie> - 2012-07-20 08:17 -0400
                Re: And this is what is called a SPANK Checkmate <LunaticFringe@The.Edge> - 2012-07-20 10:00 -0700

csiph-web