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Aucbvax.5216 fa.works utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works Tue Nov 17 00:29:18 1981 WorkS Digest V1 #37 >From JSol@RUTGERS Mon Nov 16 23:49:19 1981 WorkS Digest Tuesday, 17 Nov 1981 Volume 1 : Issue 37

Today's Topics: New Radio Shack Computer Smalltalk Kernel In C Major Corporations and Workstations Book Reference DECUS C Compiler ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 16 November 1981 1045-EST From: Hank Walker at CMU-10A Subject: new Radio Shack computer

The current ELECTRONICS claims that the new Tandy computer will be 68000- based, and be out in Feb or March 1982.

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Date: 16 Nov 1981 10:06 PST From: Deutsch at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: WorkS Digest V1 #35

Re the Smalltalk kernel in C: I would guess the current kernel is about 70% relatively environment-independent and 30% environment-dependent. However, there is another important point: the Smalltalk system includes its own instruction set, and the 70% includes the emulator for it. If you are going to run native machine instructions rather than the Smalltalk bytecodes, you will have to write your own compiler and decompiler, and do some careful thinking about how to retain the current pleasant properties of reasonably direct mapping between the source and object codes. For example, with the Smalltalk instruction set, the debugger can highlight the exact spot in a procedure being executed.

Smalltalk is set up so that you can take any procedure whatever and recode it in an underlying instruction set without any change to its callers or the system structure. For this kind of thing, having C underneath would work just fine.

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Date: 16 Nov 1981 14:09:45-EST From: rmc at CCA-UNIX (Mark Chilenskas) Subject: Major Corporations and Workstations

Last year Mike Hammer of MIT was consulting with the OA group at EXXON. I believe he was involved in designing a database for integrating office functions. A student of his, Tim Anderson, was to be working on an editor/word processor function for the same project, but last i heard Tim was choosing another thesis, so the whole thing may have fallen through. Anywho, it is a possibility that EXXON is actually trying to do something major here.

R Mark Chilenskas Chilenskas@ISIE

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Date: 16 Nov 1981 13:53:21-CST From: jacobson at uwisc Subject: Book Reference Cc: jacobson@uwisc

I have a reference to a book entitled Interactive Programming Environments, edited by E. Sandewall, H. Shrobe, and D. Barstow. I picked it up from somewhere (perhaps fa.works) about two weeks ago. I recorded that it was published by McGraw-Hill, but they don't know anything about it. If you know who has or will publish this book, please let me know.

-Fred Jacobson (jacobson@uwisc)

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Date: 16 November 1981 2248-est From: Brian N. Hess <HESS.UNICORN AT MIT-MULTICS> Subject: DECUS C compiler Cc: Lauren at UCLA-Security

It's pretty worthless. That is to say, we don't like it because it doesn't compile Mince (our ersatz EMACS) at all. For $695, who can afford to NOT use the Whitesmith's C compiler? (Both DECUS and Whitesmith's run under RT, RSX, and RSTS.)

Brian

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