[extropy-chat] RE: Poxy old computers

[Emlyn O'regan]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Lubkin [mailto:extropy at unreasonable.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, 3 February 2004 9:48 AM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: [extropy-chat] RE: Poxy old computers
> 
> 
> At 09:20 AM 2/3/2004 +1030, Emlyn O'regan wrote:
> 
> >You can fix a lot of these kinds of problems, also, by only 
> writing in C
> >when there is absolutely no alternative. Which is really 
> rather seldom.
> 
> Among the environments I write software for are PalmOS 
> computers. My TRGpro 
> clone of a Palm III has 2.5KB for system globals, a 4KB 
> application stack, 
> and 36KB available for application globals, dynamic applications, and 
> static variables. And a fairly low memory total for the 
> entire machine's 
> applications and data.
> 
> The applications I've written for Palm would be far too large 
> and too slow 
> in anything other than C. Even in C, I've had to be pretty 
> clever in data 
> compression, to balance minimal space against access time. 
> (It's been a fun 
> exercise, using muscles I don't normally need.)

"don't normally need" is the key phrase here. The rest of the Palm
developers out there, please raise your hands. Come on, someone, anyone? ...
:-) And that's the right environment for C... places where there is no other
alternative. Which are few.

> 
> There may always be circumstances where it is essential to 
> work close to 
> the machine. Today it might be a PDA or cell phone -- 10^8 
> phones running 
> J2ME is a pretty good market size. 

Hmm, I think I'd use Java there, no?

> Tomorrow it might be 
> processors inside 
> nano-robots analyzing whether the cell they reside in has 
> turned cancerous.

If you're hand coding nano-robots in C, we've got bigger issues. Not
slighting your coding skills, it's a scoping thing.

> 
> There are still uses for 4- or 8-bit processors, vacuum 
> tubes, anvils, 
> leeches, and buggy whips. And sometimes they're the best tool 
> for the problem.
> 

You know far too much about my sex life for comfort, now I'm creeped out...

Emlyn