Date   : Thu, 14 Jan 1993 14:02:53 GMT
From   : pipex!warwick!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!tjrc1@uunet.uu.net (T.J.R. Cutts)
Subject: Re: Test

Tee-hee.  I remember writing an entire Arkanoid clone in Z80 assembler for my
Amstrad PCW8256.  The code fit into 2k, including all the graphics routines I'd
written, and the data for the levels took another 4k.  Compare that with
DOS/Windoze where the smallest program I've written was 16k (and did virtually
nothing).  Even worse is the Unix clone Linux, which I also run on my PC, which
common to many C compilers, it seems, generates absolutely huge binaries.  I
have 8Mb of RAM in my PC and X Windows stumbles after only a couple of
reasonable programs.  The Amstrad PCW uses a banked memory system (most
machines are fitted with 256k or 512k).  I never managed to fill even 64k, but
there you go.  I never wrote in anything other than assembler, and I suppose
64k of machine code is a pretty hefty program.  Now that I have a PC capable of
running a Z80 emulator at the same speed as a native Z80A, I might get back
into CP/M, because it's the only operating system I've ever been able to
clearly understand in its entirety.  I'm glad to see there's such interest in
CP/M still around.

Tim.