Message-ID: <7091@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 23-May-84 15:04:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.7091
Posted: Wed May 23 15:04:08 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 26-May-84 02:19:52 EDT
References: <268@intelca.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 34
Xref: 1510 265 258

There most certainly is a fast high-level language available for the
6502.  It is called ACTION! (TM Action Computer Services) and is
marketed by Optimized Systems Software.  It is currently only available
for the Atari computer but the C64 version should be out 4th quarter
this year.  There were initial plans on doing an Apple version as well,
but the lack of interest from Apple owners caused that version to be
scrappd (8088/86 MS/PC DOS versions should be available 1st or 2nd
quarter of 1985).

For people who are familiar the BYTE sieve (prime number) bench mark;
ACTION!`s execution time is about 10 seconds with register (zero page)
variables (1.8 MHz Atari, no screen DMA).  This time is better than any
other HL language listed for either the 6502 or Z80 (even at 4MHz!)!
Even without register variables, ACTION! executes it in about 12 seconds
(sorry, I don't remember the exact timings off the top of my head).  The
source for the sieve compiles off of disk in about 2-3 seconds (most of
that time is spent opening the file) and in well under a second from the
editor buffer (there is an editor built into the system).

Now a little background about the language.  First, it generates native
6502 machine code (you probably guessed this already).  The code
generated normally is 2 to 3 times larger than ASM and runs 2 to 3 times
slower, but it depends on the programmer (of either).  The compiler is
one pass recursive descent and is very fast.  ACTION! is not a PASCAL or
C compiler, but it does support many of the control structures found in
these languages.  ACTION! does not support recursion, thus it gets
around the problem of needing a 16 bit index register (static allocation
for both local and global variables and arrays).

If you want more information about ACTION! please let me know.

Clinton Parker
rochester!parker (uucp) via allegra, decvax, seismo
parker@rochester (arpa)