Lpc2000

Hi,

> > Ahh, yes, I well remember the p-System.  The interpreter was more 
> than
> > 2K of code and remember that it also had to perform disk I/O and
> > paging--it was quite a lot of work to port the p-System and I used 
> to
> > work for a company that did exactly that.
> > 
> 
> I don't recall the paging but it makes sense.  I made the huge 
> mistake of tossing the source and executables after UCSD yanked the 
> licenses.

The p-System had the concept of a segment and even had a SEGMENT keyword
for SEGMENT PROCEDURE or SEGMENT FUNCTION -- a procedure or function
belonging to a program or unit, but whose code is not loaded with that
program or unit's code until it is called.  This is demand loading of
program code.

> I did a lot of customization of the interpreter to add IO devices.  
> It was a very interesting system.  It was even more interesting when 
> Western Digital built the p-system in silicon.  I would have like to 
> have one of those boxes but I haven't run across them on e-bay.

I have never run across a WD Microengine, but I have seen a PERQ in
action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ.  Nice machine, way nicer than
a SAGE II.

> > Don't think the p-System was simple.  Sure, the P4 compiler was 
> fairly
> > simple and used as a basis for the p-System, but the p-System went 
> way
> > beyond that simple language with UNITs and separate compilation. 
> 
> Yes, they added UNITS but I don't want that feature.  Simple 
> programs, one pass compile and go will be fine.  If I need more I 
> have Turbo Pascal under PC-DOS 7.  Or one of the offerings under 
> Linux.  Actually, Turbo Pascal was my plan for step 2.

Then why not try Pascal-S?
http://www.moorecad.com/standardpascal/pascals.html

I still have this book which describes the P4 compiler
http://homepages.cwi.nl/~steven/pascal/.

> I had actually thought to do Lee Chen Wang's Tiny Basic but I don't 
> think Basic promotes good program structure and it would be a waste 
> of an ARM processor.  But it sure worked well on an 8080 and 8085.

I don't think this is necessarily true--good program structure is
learned, and it would not be a waste of an ARM processor given that RISC
OS and Arthur ran a nice BASIC.

My personal introduction to microcomputers was with Commodore PETs and
Acorn Atoms (yes, my first personal computer was an Acord Atom with a
6502, and THAT Acorn).  Both these had BASIC as an operating system and
language combo.  I find it astounding that people denegrate BASIC yet
BASIC kicked off the microcomputer revolution by letting people have
*something* to write programs in that wasn't daunting and didn't need a
compile-linkedit-run-crash-debug process.  It's astounding how
resourceful you become when you have limited RAM to write programs in.

Good programming is learned over time--it's not easily taught.  You
write good programs by looking at good programming style.  I find it
rather like learning a natural language, there is no substitute for
going out and using and talking to natives, it doesn't matter how long
you spend in the classroom being "taught" good grammar and vocabulary.

BASIC might not cut it in ivory towers, but hell, it's a great way to
get started with programming and get some use out of a computer.  I'd
rather start my children off with BASIC on a micro they can directly
control rather than with Logo or C or Pascal on a PC which they really
can't.  I am *not* a fan of universities that teach highbrow stuff as a
first language--ETH's approach is absolutely right, the staff know what
they're talking about because they know how to construct custom hardware
to run their custom software on, and they [used to] do it all
themselves.  Bravo!

> > There is a great ARM9 board coming out that would be fabulous as a
> > p-System target, and it's inexpensive.  In fact, I'm porting one 
> of my
> > projects to it now.  It's a great device for retrocomputing.
> 
> Who is making the board and when might it be available?  It's not 
> like this project is urgent.  My grandson is only in 2d grade.

Can't really say at present.

-- Paul.