Re: Top 10 most common hard skills listed on resumes...

On 10/09/2024 12:52, Bart wrote:

On 10/09/2024 05:40, Waldek Hebisch wrote:

Bart <bc@freeuk.com> wrote:

 

I've looked at half a dozen hits for 'forth postpone' and I still don't
understand what it does. Apparently something to do with compiled mode.
>
I wouldn't know enough to confidently implement it or use it.

>
Silly example 1:
>

  <snip long article about Forth>
 For a non-advocate of Forth you have a lot to say about it!
 I've archived your post for if/when I get back to that project. (If I ever use Forth, it'll be on my own terms. I just tried it to see if it's still breathing:
   c:\qapps>qq forth
  Bart-Forth
  Type bye to stop
  > 2 2 + .
  4
  > bye
 

But it handle :
: 2 1 ;
2 2 + .
and get the answer 2 ?  :-)

So it looks like I already thought of it as my version.)
 

To give more background, bare ZX81 had 1kB RAM (including video RAM).

>
You must mean /excluding/ surely? Otherwise there wouldn't be much left
from 1KB!

>
There is not much left.  But there is a trick: boundary between
video memory and rest is movable, as you fill other part available
screen area shrinks.  It does not take long time to have machine
completely filled out with no free space left (and IIRC some
small screen area for out of memory message)

 So that meagre 1KB had to be shared?
 

Yes.  24 lines of 32 characters took 768 bytes, and the OS and BASIC took another 125 bytes.  There was not a lot of space for user code and data!
Most programs (often games) for the ZX81 required a memory expansion, which I believe was typically 4 KB or 16 KB.
Low price was key for the ZX81 and its predecessor the ZX80 (and its successor, the ZX Spectrum).
I've worked with microcontrollers with extremely small memories.  It can be fun up to a point, but it's not really a good use of valuable programmers' time when implementing a fix or new feature means trying to find a few bits of spare RAM or a way to squeeze a half-dozen bytes of code into the eeprom space.