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From: jabernathy@pro-houston.cts.com (Joe Abernathy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Orca/C V1.0 bugs
Message-ID: <8910041237.AA14840@trout.nosc.mil>
Date: 4 Oct 89 02:12:24 GMT
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> C isn't particularly hard to test; there are numerous test suites
> commercially available. ByteWorks may have felt that they couldn't
> afford any of them.

Byte Works uses a suite of over 800 individual tests on all of their
compilers, and on top of that, send out thousands of dollars worth of every
new release to beta testers. They go to great lengths to get all of the bugs
out.

Then why are there still bugs after this process? With any application several
thousand lines in length, there are going to be things that get missed. And
with a language compiler, this fact of life is doubled or tripled.
Particularly in the case of a C compiler, you're going to run full tilt into
trouble. C is a very unkind language on its own; add to this the fact that
most IIGS programmers don't have a lot of C experience, and the fact that the
IIGS Toolbox doubles the amount of complexity with which you're faced. You end
up with programs setting memory pointers to left field, mysterious error
messages, and a lot of complaints.

Another problem is that some people even fail to read the manual. Some people
even fail to BUY the manual. The thinking with ORCA/C among many people seems
to be that all you need to do is download a copy of the language somewhere,
get a C manual at B. Dalton, and go to town.

I've been having a lot of fun with ORCA/C. Yes, there are some problems still,
but I certainly don't find it to be an unusuable compiler. I've only had
problems with two programs out of about three dozen I've compiled with it.
(Yes, I was one of the beta testers, but I'm not affiliated with Byte Works in
any fashion.)

Think back to the original APW C. Or TML Pascal (still). Or TML BASIC (still).
Or GS BASIC (still). Or Pascal 1.3. Or ...


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