Re: ANN: SwiftX for ARM and i386

Jeff Massung wrote:
> 
> "Elizabeth D Rather" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
> 
> > "Jeff Massung" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> >> Also, does SwiftX support the THUMB instruction set as well?
> >
> > No, at this point we see no compelling reason to support the THUMB.
> > We will be adding more ARM variants as we encounter them.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Elizabeth
> 
> I understand not implementing it if no one would pay for it (or use it),
> but as an example reason for implementing THUMB:
> 
> The GameBoy Advance (using ARM7TDMI) has a ROM that is only 16-bits
> wide. Writing in THUMB assembly produces code that is roughly the same
> size (perhaps a little smaller for some routines or larger for others),
> but runs about 160% faster than the equivelant ARM code.

You have to keep in mind that in the grand scheme of things, Forth, Inc
is not a large company.  So they don't have tons of product development
money and need to see a clear marketing reason to do development work. 
Or they need to have a customer pay for it.  I have asked for an ARM
forth from them for over a year, IIRC, and the answer was always "Are
you willing to pay for it?"  They found someone to pay, but clearly they
did not care about Thumb mode.  Likely that will take another paying
customer rather than just system sales.  ;)


-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

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