On Fri, 20 Sep 2002 at 11:23:29, Laurence Reeves wrote:
(ref: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
>The sort of game that you'll find in the Minerva ROM, where every byte
>saved on non-critical code meant another feature could be squeezed in,
One feature per byte is a mite better than even _you_ could manage (8-)#
I well remember your general attitude in saving bytes.
eg use JMP not JSR when the called routine was the last action.
You use this for instance when you call BP.INIT.
... and your comment that using MT.INF (for system variable base) was
actually shorter than accessing the literal address - which allows for
easy patching of dodgy code.
I reckon you would win all competitions for compact code, but
readability is a different matter.
eg in superBasic you often had:
10 a% = b%
I spent ages looking for the variable b%, until I realised it was a
function (8-)#
You hate superfluous bytes, and I have seen you in my own basic code
almost unconsciously removing superfluous spaces - even putting 'endif'
knowing it would resolve to 'END IF' automatically.
FOR j=1 TO 3, rather than 'FOR j = 1 TO 3' and so on, but quite
automatically.
Mind you having seen your asm, I reckon you would win the documentation
prize too (8-)#
There was one whole page I remember where the only code was
something like:
version$ = "2.65";
but was actually a seamless part of the comment.
You would also document long arguments with yourself in deciding the
best course of action.
>might have gone something like:
><snip>
>Ah well... I chip in my two cents once in a while. Hi all!
... and nice to see you reading the list.
I know (from our recent very voluminous recent emails) that you are, but
I keep forgetting you still read the list.
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