[Coco] A Basic09 Query

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 8/26/19 6:02 PM, Wayne Campbell wrote:
> PI isn't really a function. It's more of a defined constant. 

It's listed as a Function on the Reference Card.  And Basic09 is
not the only language implementation I have seen to do this.  It
  may only return the constant value,  but I would assume if it
is implemented as a function it has the associated overhead.  Thus
the reason for my question.

>                                                              SQ and SQR
> both compute the square root of a number. If I recall correctly, one
> operates on REAL numbers, the other on INTEGER numbers, but I may be
> misremembering there.

The book lists both as taking "a numeric" and returning "a
numeric".  Nothing about either being Integer or Real.  But,
again, why?  Why have the overhead of a function call for a
simple multiplication?

I was hoping one of the former MicroWare denizens might
remember why this was done in that manner.

bill