Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!venera.isi.edu!rod
From: rod@venera.isi.edu (Rodney Doyle Van Meter III)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Whatever happened to TDI (ModulaII)?
Message-ID: <13751@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 4 Jun 90 17:04:51 GMT
References: <2924@crash.cts.com> <55001@microsoft.UUCP>
Reply-To: rod@venera.isi.edu (Rodney Doyle Van Meter III)
Organization: Information Sciences Institute, Univ. of So. California
Lines: 52

In article <55001@microsoft.UUCP> w-stephm@microsoft.UUCP (Stephan MUELLER) writes:
>
>I recommend considering your investment in TDI a write off.  If you
>really like Modula-2, get the Benchmark Modula-2 compiler.  It's
>fabulous.  There is a really nice source debugger available, and
>it comes with a really nice integrated environment, that runs, and
>runs well, in only 512K.
>

I don't know about the memory thing -- even with a fair amount of
tuning using their configuration utility, and making sure it's using
disk for temp space, it goes contrary on me and refuses to compile
medium-sized source files (>1K lines), and I end up rebooting to clear
up enough memory to make it happy. I think it has a slight memory
management bug that causes it to slowly chew up free space (not sure
exactly which version I'm running, but it's relatively recent). This
is on a 2000 with 1MB memory.

It does have some bugs, namely that it won't run the editor from the
workbench, and it won't run the compiler from the shell, only within
the editor.

Its module management stuff (keeping versions straight) is sometimes
less than helpful about which units are really in need of a recompile.

This is partially their fault, and partially the language's: if you
declare that a routine has a return value, the compiler doesn't insist
that you actually return one (the version of Wirth I have says the
compiler should insist that the routine have at least one RETURN
statement, but that it's entirely the programmer's fault if it's
inside a untaken IF clause or somesuch, so the compiler actually
differs from the spec here). Makes for great nonrepeatable
machine-crashing bugs!

The range-checking feature doesn't appear to work as documented. The
give you a source file switch to turn it on, but that only seems to
work if you have configured to compiler to do range checking, and it's
not clear to me whether or not it is then range checking where you
don't want it to. When it works, it just quietly exits the program. It
really needs a way that the programmer can attach an exception
routine, to clean up allocated memory, maybe print out a message
telling you where it went out of bounds, etc.

I do like it, though. Lots of good documentation, and the Emacs beats
the best version of MicroEmacs I have.  If you have source code in TDI
M2, they include a guide on the differences.

The main reason I'm writing, though, is to ask where you can get the
debugger! I'd love to have it, but the Amiga stores in SoCal say they
don't have it and can't get it.

				--Rod