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A comment on The UCSD p-System, Apple Pascal, and a dream of cross-platform compatibility. Parent comment

Re:The UCSD p-System, Apple Pascal, and a dream of cross-pla... by mbessey on Sunday April 20, 2025 @02:25PM (#43745502)
When I get around to analyzing the p-code instruction set, the code-compression aspect will definitely get a mention.

Stack-based vs register-based instruction sets are a very clear size vs speed tradeoff. That's also one reason that the Java VM was designed with a stack architecture, though in that case, it was download time they wanted to minimize.

The whole thing with UCSD having to essentially "give away" the p-System to a separate commercial entity is a sad part of the history, for sure.

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Re:The UCSD p-System, Apple Pascal, and a dream of cross-pla... by rgleaves on Monday April 21, 2025 @12:00AM (#43748405)
The saddest part of the UCSD Pascal giveaway: SofTech in fact achieved its goal with the purchase, which was not to keep the p-System competitive, but rather to polish their 1981 public stock offering:

https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1981/dig072081.pdf

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