Re: Does this model work ?

[Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-dejanews.com>]

In article <m3iu9un85l.fsf@deneb.cygnus.stuttgart.netsurf.de>,
  Florian Weimer <fw@cygnus.stuttgart.netsurf.de> wrote:
> jmarten@ibm.net (Jean-Marten Marchi) writes:
>
> > Ah, nothing is new in this business ! Didn't Pascal have a
Virtual
> > Machine too?
>
> AFAIK there were quite a few compilers out there which
compiled to
> byte code.  You just didn't call it Virtual Machine, then.

The term virtual machine is very old. And yes, UCSD Pascal
was often referred to using this term.

It is entertaining to see how many people think that Java
actually invented the notion of byte code.

UCSD Pascal was implemented on many many machines, and there
was a big catalog of applications (databases, word processors,
spread sheets, etc etc) that were available in byte code form.

Why didn't it catch on? Many reasons, mostly non-technical.

I knew UCSD Pascal quite well, I helped design the world's
fastest UCSD machine (from Versal), and wrote several large
scale UCSD Pascal applications, including a full featured
fancy word processor that was one of the first to have full
support for proportional width fonts (which were supported
directly in the Versal display hardware, which was quite
clever, you gave it fixed matric font definitions, and it
eliminated multiple blank vertical columns at the display
level).

Ah, the old days :-)





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