Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!mephisto!prism!sun13!VSSERV.SCRI.FSU.EDU!mayne
From: mayne@VSSERV.SCRI.FSU.EDU (William (Bill) Mayne)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Info request for Power C compiler
Keywords: MIX PowerC
Message-ID: <349@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 2 Aug 90 19:40:42 GMT
References: <24164@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <1990Aug2.163608.25539@NCoast.ORG>
Sender: news@sun13.scri.fsu.edu
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Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
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>In article <24164@boulder.Colorado.EDU> mdperry@beagle (Marc D. Perry) writes:
>
>>I recently received a package of postcards from BYTE magazine; each
>>card contains advertising info on a specific product and one of these
>>sounds too good to be true.  For 19.95 MIX software will send you the
>>Power C compliler with features like: make, linker, libraries (10
>>bucks more), 600 page manual, ANSI std., IEEE floating point,
>>automatic register variables, supports all graphics.  They also show a
>
>                          [lots deleted here]
>
>>Marc D. Perry                               (303) 492 8258                     
For learning a little C and finding out if you like it MIX C is fine.
However, considering its limitations which another respondant has
detailed I would recommend you spend not too much more for Turbo C if
you can afford it. I see you are at an .EDU site, so you can probably
get Turbo C for $49.95 under the educational discount plan. Turbo C++
would be $69.95. At least those are the prices at FSU. For that you
get a really solid and main stream compiler, three or four volumes
of okay documentation. And an excellent editting and debugging
environment.

You question whether you need the integrated development environment,
saying that you are not a developer. Actually the IDE is (IMHO, I don't
know what insiders at Borland think) aimed more at the student and hobby
market than developers. Developers can and do spend more bucks for
LANs, better editors, source code control systems, hardware assisted
debuggers, etc. A decent and not too expensive programming environment
is important if you are programming for education and/or pleasure.

By the way, even if you aren't interested in C++ right now you might
want to spend the extra $20 to get it over Turbo C. The C subset of
Turbo C is just like their C. It compiles only a little slower (not
enough to be problem) and may not produce quite as good object code.
But since you aren't a developer that won't matter much. The editor
is better, allowing you to edit many files at once. It would be worth
the difference to me for that feature alone. And if you do want to
dabble in C++ you could.