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From: tmb@davinci.acc.Virginia.EDU (Thomas M. Breeden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re; Whatever happened to TDI (ModulaII)?
Message-ID: <1990Jun5.135804.1361@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 5 Jun 90 13:58:04 GMT
Sender: news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 65


In article <13751@venera.isi.edu> rod@venera.isi.edu (Rodney Doyle Van Meter III) writes:
 >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.
  >>

 >It does have some bugs, namely that it won't run the editor from the
 >workbench,

The editor runs fine from the CLI/Shell (I tend to use it as a general purpose
editor also). Isn't there a simple way (XICON?) to start up any
CLI program from Workbench?

 >and it won't run the compiler from the shell, only within
 >the editor.

I use the Benchmark compiler all the time from the CLI/Shell. Shell
scripts to run multi-compiles of a number of modules in a package
work fine.

In fact, I am thinking that there is some advantage in compiling from
the Shell, since you can set up DEF file directory paths with a compiler
switch that way. I have not found a way to do this if compiling from
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 because it (like most M2 systems) uses a very simple, but effective,
version checking approach: every object file contains the version number
(assigned by the compiler) of every module it is directly or indirectly
dependent on (IMPORTs).

It reports the name of the module being processed at the time a version
mismatch is detected, but the culprit could be any previously processed
module also dependent on the same mismatch version module.

It might nice, then, if it reported the whole set of modules that are
dependent on the mismatch version module.

Even so, IMHO, the version checking system is much superior to using
a Make program that depends on the programmer organizing and enforcing
dependencies (he/she may start out doing a good job at that, but it
rarely is kept up).

You might have to find an Ada compiler for the next step up in
consistency handling.

 >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

Try directly from Avant-Garde or from a mail order place like
Go Amigo.

Tom Breeden
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