XPost: alt.lang.basic   
   From: rflowers@Tinbowlinggreen.com   
      
   "Daniel Hamilton"  wrote in message   
   news:w5_kf.30013$Ox.20613@tornado.texas.rr.com...   
   > Phred wrote:   
   >> One problem with translating to GWBASIC, for example, is that Tandy BASIC   
   >> programs could be written without spaces between variables and key words   
   >> etc.  So a line such as 10 FORI=1TO10 would be legal.   
   >>   
   >> Not saying that *everyone* did this, but saving 20% of typing effort was   
   >> worth it to those of us who had never learnt to type. :-)  And after   
   >> doing it for awhile, it was quite easy to read those programs!  [Remember   
   >> the two-line "games" etc. published in mags such as _80 Micro_ at the   
   >> time? :-)]   
   >   
   > Not meaning to be disrespectful, or even rude, but since I'm a software   
   > developer by trade I take special exception to this: :)   
   >   
   > 10 FORI=1TO10   
   >   
   > That is just evil.  Whoever is so lazy as to do this deserves whatever   
   > comes to them!  How hard is it to press a space bar?  Why does pressing   
   > the space bar even require knowing anything about how to type?  Whoever   
   > the crazy programmer was that made Tandy BASIC accept such code should be   
   > hog-tied! *I'm sure it had something to do with memory constraint right?*   
   > :)   
   >   
   > --Daniel   
      
   It was to save memory. My first machine was a 4K Level I TRS-80. There were   
   a lot of examples out there at the time on how to save precious memory. It   
   certainly wasn't laziness; when I was coding I would mostly use spaces, for   
   readability and debugging. Only if I started to bump up against the RAM   
   ceiling would I go back and start eliminating spaces.   
      
   I remember some listings in SoftSide explaining that although the program   
   was printed with spaces, if you wanted to cram it into 16K, you'd better   
   leave them out when typing the program in.   
      
   Also, there were routines and small programs written especially to read your   
   program and eliminate spaces for you. The smarter ones even knew not to   
   delete them from inside quotes!   
      
   - R Flowers   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)