Speed Script

[RobertLM78]

Greetings 99ers. I happened across the wikipedia article on Speed Script the other day. It appears that it was on several home computers 'back in the day', however the TI seems to be conspicuously missing from the list of platforms. Any reason for this that any of you may know? Was it ever ported to the TI? Just curious .

[+OLD CS1]

I remember using SpeedScript on my Commodore 64 before I got WordWriter 4, and then on my VIC-20 when my 64 bit the bullet in a move and before I could obtain a replacement. It was a very handy and powerful program. Most of the better ports came later after COMPUTE! dropped the TI. So far as I know, no port was released for the TI, though I have no inside knowledge so perhaps one was done and never released.

 

Since those old COMPUTE! magazines are available on-line and in various collections (I have a bunch from this time period,) it might make a neat programming project for someone to port v3 over.

[+OLD CS1]

I was thinking about this. One advantage other systems have over the TI is stock access to memory and machine language. Every system but the TI could POKE values representing a machine language program into memory and then execute that program. As well, every machine could load and execute machine language programs saved to disk or cassette. The TI... yeah, not on a stock console. A small program like SpeedScript might be expected to run on a stock console, or even in a MiniMemory environment. Maybe in Extended BASIC. That was the glam of COMPUTE! programs for the TI back then -- most programs could run on an unexpanded console, with XB or MM at most.

 

To run in BASIC, it would have to be pretty tight and use variables for storage. The variable table would consume a lot of memory alone. Speed would be an issue.

 

A MiniMemory version would need to fit within the 4K of the cartridge. It could use VDP RAM for the editor buffer. This would probably be the most ideal way to go.

 

Extended BASIC would have to operate the same way as BASIC, but might be a little faster.

 

Now, move to an expanded console, 32k at a minimum, disk controller for gravy, and you would have a more functional program. Lots of memory, disk storage, better ability to run assembly, etc.

 

Anyway, kind-of a mental exercise for me. Anyone else have thoughts on a project like this?