Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: LATTICE C V5 / C++ V1
Message-ID: <13020@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 3 Jul 90 19:13:58 GMT
References: <1196a604fca7267f495c@canremote.uucp> <90177.165517UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> <1990Jun27.201717.8938@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 36

In article <1990Jun27.201717.8938@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:

>More than that, as I found to my sorrow when I bought Lattice C++, even
>though C++ is explicitly defined to be a completely upward compatible
>superset of C, the Lattice C++ distribution, at incredibly high cost,
>doesn't bother to include the files needed to compile vanilla Amgia C
>code, and only includes one of their early, buggy C compilers.  

Originally, both somewhat true.  The C++ compiler didn't come out until
just before Lattice 5.00 shipped, but it used as a backend the Lattice 4.xx
compiler.  While I didn't find Lattice 4.xx all that buggy, it certainly
wasn't as clever about things as 5.0.  Lattice, however, did ultimately
provide a version of the CC program for C++ that would use Lattice 5.0 as
a backend, rather than 4.0.

As for the upward compatibility, the main thing that was left out of the
C++ distribution originally was the documentation.  There was apparently a
question at Lattice as to what actually was a supported part of the C
libraries under C++.  The C++ language IS defined as a superset of C.  But
not necessarily a superset of ANSI C, since the ANSI specification is
more recent than C++.  In any case, Lattice ultimately decided that the
whole Lattice C compiler library was part of C++, and sent out a book if
you registered your copy that documented all the Lattice C calls.  

What that still left out, and this I agree with, was any documentation on 
the actual C compiler itself.  That is a good thing, since I really hope
they eventually build a C++ replacement for LC1, rather than going the
CPP->CFRONT->LC1 route they presently take.  That should make C++ compile
significantly faster, but of course eliminates the plain C compiler
completely.

>Kent, the man from xanth.
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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	"I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit" -REM