[Coco] Re: optimizing

Gene Heskett gene.heskett at verizon.net
Wed Dec 10 14:32:00 EST 2003


On Wednesday 10 December 2003 13:57, KnudsenMJ at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 12/10/03 12:50:27 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>
>gene.heskett at verizon.net writes:
>> I write
>>  maybe 20 to 30 lines of code (average) a day that way, all
>> thoroughly checked and traced with os9p4.  Once I got into that
>> housekeeping mindset, it was actually pretty easy to pay attantion
>> to the details because it was code that once checked, didn't have
>> to be rechecked at the next assembly, and my productivity was
>> probably multiplied by 2 or 3 over the write it all day, but build
>> it once a day folks.
>
>Hey Gene, what's os9p4?

You've not heard of that?  Amazing.  You build it into your os9boot 
file, usually right after os9p3, which is right after os9p2, and then 
use it as a subroutine in your program.

os9p3 is an error interceptor, taking any error return and reading its 
description from defs/error.h or some such, thereby relieveing you 
from wearing out the manuals looking up the error codes.  It makes 
the manuals last a lot longer :-)

os9p4 is a register dumper, adding the call f$regdmp to the os.  Save 
the CC on the stack, call it from anyplace in your program and the 
registers will be dumped to stdout.

When it returns, pop the CC off the stack and continue on your merry 
way with nothing changed.  Its CC output is correct as printed to std 
out, but will not be correct by the time it returns, hence the pushs, 
pulls to save it for your program.  Its a great troubleshooter.

>I do agree that you at least compile/assemble new code.  When I'm
> hacking away at 6 different modules of UME, I typically compile
> each one before going on to the next one, so any compiler warnings
> will come while I'm still thinking of what I just did.
>
>On the Coco or MM/1, that means I always keep the compiler going in
> a separate window from my editing (gotta love multi-tasking). 
> Under Linux, gcc is so fast I just issue a "make whatever.o" shell
> line from within Emacs.  --Mike K.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III at 500mhz 320M
Athlon1600XP at 1400mhz  512M
99.22% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
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Copyright 2003 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.




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