Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!midway!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!jb10320
From: jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Desdinova)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Prizm Sucks!
Message-ID: <1990Dec2.195007.11602@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 90 19:50:07 GMT
References: <1990Dec1.082442.25195@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <14631@smoke.brl.mil>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 51

In article <14631@smoke.brl.mil> gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>In article <1990Dec1.082442.25195@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Desdinova) writes:
>>I thought they taught that in my first year CS course, but maybe Mike
>>didn't attend an institution of higher learning (egads, even HIGH SCHOOL
>>level.)
>
>Did it ever occur to you that perhaps that was a BUG in Prizm, not an
>intentional aspect of its implementation?

Even so, it's a bug that should have been caught before it went beta,
let alone commercial.  THAT is what irks me.  The reason for this is
Mike is the only person doing major work on Pascal, C, the Assembler,
and Prizm.  The other people at Byteworks (his wife, for example) usually
do incidental work like UI design or manuals.  If he wants to have
good products with realistic time frames he needs to HIRE MORE PEOPLE.
I have more than a little experience with compilers- I'd be glad to
work on Orca products for FREE! Just so I could have development tools
that worked.

>
>Did you report this to ByteWorks?  I believe Mike is working on the next
>release of the ORCA shell and Prizm. so there is a chance you could get
>this fixed fairly soon.  In fact you might be able to volunteer as a
>prerelease test site.

   I've done this many times (gotten betas to play with).  In fact, I
subscribed to GEnie just so I could send mail directly to Mike without
paying long distance.  I've personally discovered about three major bugs
in Orca/C (a code generation bug which I reported long before 1.1 came
out wasn't fixed, much to my dismay. He sent me a letter after 1.1
saying "the bug has been logged, and will be fixed in the new version".
Whenever that is.)  This is in addition to around 10 that other people
had also found.  I'd also like to know why *pc++ works but *pc-- causes
the compiler to blow up.

   No, I haven't reported it yet, but I will as soon as I log in to 
GEnie again, I can assure you.

>Ranting on the net accomplishes nothing worthwhile.

Sure it does. It lets people know how screwed the entire orca environment
(except the shell) is.

BTW, Derek and I are going to try to patch that bug in the next day or two.

--
Jawaid Bazyar               | Blondes in big black cars look better wearing
Senior/Computer Engineering | their dark sunglasses at night. (unk. wierdo)
jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu    |      The gin, the gin, glows in the Dark!
   Apple II Forever!        |                             (B O'Cult)
Comp.Sys.Apple2- Home of the Unofficial Apple II Developer Support Team (DST)