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From: jer@stbimbo.UUCP (John Ramspott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Lattice/SAS C
Message-ID: <113@stbimbo.UUCP>
Date: 28 Aug 90 20:11:25 GMT
Reply-To: jer@stbimbo.UUCP (John Ramspott)
Organization: Sales Technologies Inc.  Atlanta, Ga.
Lines: 57

I have been a little disturbed over some of the Lattice/SAS flaming going on.
They have been producing their compiler from the very beginning, when you
could fit all the Amiga developers into a VolksWagen. They have stayed with
it through unstable Amiga OS's, unstable Commodore, new machines, competition
from Aztec, and flaming from the net. Face it folks, they helped get the
Amiga where it is today. I think it is about time they made money off their
Amiga products. I remember the flaky 1.0 compiler, and was thrilled to finally
get the "Yellow manual" to explain it all. The product has come a long way,
survived a lot, and now supports the newest OS.

Folks, look around. $40 for a major compiler upgrade is peanuts. This is
professional software, and the market is much smaller than what exists for
IBM PC's (thus no Borland Turbo products). Regardless of how your clients
use their Amiga (graphics, sound, multimedia, checkbook balancing, etc),
you can make money with the Lattice C compiler. From games to accounting
software, it can produce it all. The Amiga is the best machine out there, but
the reality of it is that it practically is a vertical market from a
professoinal point of view. I think the compiler is amazingly cheap, and 
provides an editor, debugger, and Unix tools (grep, find, etc) that on the PC
you pay a great deal more for.

As for the 900 number, who says YOU have to use it? For people to take the
Amiga seriously as a development system, they must have access to immediate
technical support. Microsoft charges for ONLINE and other services, and then
frequently answer questions with "Gee, I don't know". Companies who write
software gladly pay for technical support. TIME IS MONEY. For those of you
who aren't computer professionals, use BIX or Snail Mail. For that matter,
post to the net. They aren't trying to cut you off, but they are trying to
provide immediate support to those whose livelihood depends on it. I for one
am glad to see this level of support coming to the Amiga. Ami is growing up.

OK, now the bad news. There is one thing that Lattice has done that needs to
be fixed. They have not supported their C++ compiler!!! Hello SAS? Do you
remember the product? It's a great language, and the original translator
proved itself to be useful and fascinating. C++ is quickly becoming the
language of choice, especially where GUI development is concerned. But there
hasn't been a single update in 2 years. It is still based on cfront 1.1, which
is now up to 2.1! I can get either a 2.1 compiler or translator for every
platform but an Amiga, and that is very sad. The Amiga is an ideal candidate
for C++ development. I for one don't mind it being a translator. I like
being able to update the C compiler part independently of the C++ part. And
after all, the AT&T product on which all C++ work is based is a translator
too (unless this has changed recently). I want SAS to update their C++
product, and treat it like a real product as they do the C compiler. Wake up
dudes, the C++ market is GROWING rapidly. And yes, I will happily pay for the
upgrade.

In conclusion, I wish SAS well in taking over the compiler efforts. By and
large they have done very good work for the Amiga industry, and they hung in
there during the lean years. It is payoff time. I hope they make enough dough
off C compiler upgrades and the 900 number to work on that C++ product too!

Sorry for the tirade folks, but I hate to see good guys get attacked by people
out of touch with economics (the need to pay employees salaries, need to pay
rent, pay electric, etc.). I would very much like a SAS/Lattice person to
tell us all when we can expect to see updated C++ products. My checkbook
is waiting...