1 Jul
2016
1 Jul
'16
5 a.m.
Ronald Natalie <ron(a)ronnatalie.com>
UCSD Pascal, the Apple Pascal base, would grab the video memory as space to write the heap
when compiling. When the Terak system was in use at UCSD the video memory would display on
the screen so you could watch the heap grow down the screen while the stack crawled up
when compiling. If it ever hit in the middle, you had a crash. Exciting times.
Terak systems were 11/03 based, IIRC. (http://www.threedee.com/jcm/terak/)
David
On the other hand, there was
no excuse for a Pascal compiler to be either large, buggy, or slow, even before Turbo
Pascal.
I remember the Pascal computer on my Apple II used to have to use some of the
video memory while it was running.