1237d03db175
c_echo



Hello Roy - 

CA>>> The older Pacific C (K&R) would fit on one 1.4meg floppy
CA>>> which I thought was a hoot! Being K&R became a 'stopper'
CA>>> but it was neat that you could put it on one floppy. :-) 

RJT>> Are you saying here that it being K&R rather than ANSI
RJT>> made it less useful to you? Or am I mis-reading your
RJT>> comment here? 

CA>> Yes, it became less useful when code was no longer written
CA>> as K&R. 

RJT> Well, I guess depending on what I was trying to do I could 

RJT> live with it.   Not that I do all that much
RJT> live with it.   programming 

RJT> these days... 

The K&R release was an earlier release (much earlier) than the
version they are offering free now. The version of Pacific
available now is ANSI compatible and won't fit on one floppy
anymore. :-) 

CA>> --8<--cut 

RJT>> I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way... I'm
RJT>> also getting *real* tired of reaching for a man page and
RJT>> being told that the bloody man page "is no longer being
RJT>> maintained and I should look at the info pages
RJT>> instead"...! 

RJT>> It's got me aggravated enough that I'm about ready to
RJT>> convert that info stuff to some other format, and get it
RJT>> off my system! 

CA>> I was a bit perplexed when adding manpage functions to a
CA>> mini-install to find there were _two_ of them (info, and
CA>> 'man'). 

RJT> It's sorta like those folks that are saying that because I
RJT> want to run linux I should learn how to use vi, or worse
RJT> yet, emacs. I'm used to the kind of convenience I had with
RJT> qedit under dos, or vdo2 under cp/m (a 4k executable!). Or
RJT> WordStar,  for that matter, where the design made one heck
RJT> of a lot of sense -- I can do things a *lot* faster if I
RJT> can keep my hands in normal touch typing position and not
RJT> have to be reaching for function keys and similar stuff. 

I would miss having access to qedit, that's for sure. :-\ 

CA>> --8<--cut 

CA>>> The hardware we all have (even me) and the software we
CA>>> use daily is so bloated that size has to double before
CA>>> anyone gets  uncomfortable and even then it's considered
CA>>> a speed bump by most (yes, even me). 

RJT>> I still like lean and streamlined code, and stuff that
RJT>> runs that has "snap" to it. I managed that with what
RJT>> little programming I did under cp/m, way back when, and
RJT>> prefer to do similar stuff these days, when I can manage
RJT>> it. 

CA>> I like tight code but the time for kudos for writing tight
CA>> code has long since passed an I am reluctant to put in the
CA>> time/effort required to produce it. 

RJT> Yeah, way back when hardware was expensive, and the time
RJT> of programmers was cheap. Now it's the other way around.
RJT> But just because you _can_ use up big chunks of resources
RJT> to get something done in a hurry doesn't mean that I want
RJT> to. And since I'm doing this for my own pleasure, I'll
RJT> structure things that way when I can. 

I still aim for tight code but it's not as important to me as
it once was. 

RJT> Heck, even now loading just about anything under KDE takes
RJT> way too long. I'm less and less inclined to do things
RJT> there for the most part. 

I have read at more than one website that Linux GUI is slower
than Windows GUI given all other things being equal. 

CA>>> For anyone reading this message that is truly interested
CA>>> in the  size of binaries this one programmer's story
CA>>> about how he managed to reduce the size of a binary might
CA>>> be interesting reading. When I read this website it
CA>>> reminded me of similar discussions that I followed
CA>>> between Unix C programmers many many years ago. 

CA>>> (from a link at my tech website): 

CA>>> http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tiny/teensy.h
CA>>>  

RJT>> Where on your site? I was there earlier, though I left
RJT>> before I  got done looking around... 

CA>> The link exists on the "compiler" webpage. 

RJT> Ok, I was poking around there and hit one link that took
RJT> me elsewhere, at which point I got caught up in that and
RJT> never made it back. I'll get back in there at some point
RJT> and poke around some more... 

That's good. You found things that were of interest to you. The
other links will be there when you return. ;-) 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

___ * ATP/16bit 2.31 * 
... DOS the Ghost in the Machine! http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/

--- Maximus/2 3.01