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CAP-X and COMP-X: How the Tandy pocket computers got a sucky Japanese assembler
- jhbadger 3y agoIt would have been fun if a "fake" assembly language had to be used (rather than one corresponding to the actual CPU) that MIX from Knuth's books would have been used (yes, current versions of the books use an updated version called MMIX, but plain MIX would have been contemporary for these pocket computers).
- helpfulContrib 3y agoThe Japanese electronics giants of that era had an alterntive to MIX, in the ITRON [1] initiative, which included plans for a system-wide virtual machine to be used for compatibility purposes .. Knuths' books, while popular among Japanese computer scientists of the era, had some stiff competition in the Japanese industrial sector .. a few of the major players produced ITRON kernels with this capability, it would be interesting to research which of the personal computing toys of the era were ITRON machines in disguise .. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITRON_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITRON_project
- WillAdams 3y agoBeats only having BASIC as my PC-1 was limited to.
- rep_lodsb 3y agoThis isn't a real assembly language that has direct access to the hardware. Or even the capability to write "Hello world" (the only I/O is numbers, in either hex or decimal). And labels are limited to 3 characters, so not much better than line numbers in BASIC! The one real advantage would be the 16-bit integer arithmetic, probably the main reason for it being faster than BASIC (which only supports floating point numbers on these machines, implemented in software on a 4-bit microcontroller). I had one of these too, but without the manual. The "Asmbl" button was fascinating to me, but I couldn't figure out how to use it until much later when I found a scan of the manual online - you can imagine the disappointment! Figured there had to be some educational purpose behind it, but this is the first time I read about this Japanese standard.
- layer8 3y agoI was hoping for katakana opcodes.
- classichasclass 3y agoYou'll love G-BASIC on the Tomy Pyūta then, because its very primitive BASIC is indeed katakana: https://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/pyuuta/pyuuta1.html https://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/pyuuta/pyuuta1.html
- fmajid 3y agoI had the Casio fx-780P. It was a piece of junk, even by the standards of the day.
- classichasclass 3y agoYet people love them, especially the PC-6. It has to be the form factor. Meanwhile, my PC-4 (Casio PB-100) was far more useful to me and they seem much more durable.
- fmajid 3y agoThe form factor is not that great. Much later I got a HP95LX then a HP200LX, which were genuinely useful machines.