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Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lsuc!robohack!contact!ben
From: ben@contact.uucp (Ben Eng)
Subject: Re: Compare DICE and NorthC
Organization: Jet Penguin Lavatories
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 8 May 1991 04:54:12 GMT
Message-ID: <1991May8.045412.13202@contact.uucp>
References: <1991May7.175351.4470@javelin.sim.es.com>

In <1991May7.175351.4470@javelin.sim.es.com> dingebre@imp.sim.es.com (David Ingebretsen) writes:

>Would some kind soul please compare DICE and NorthC? I'm in immediate need
>of a GOOD C compiler but don't have the immediate cash to buy a commercial
>version.

I can't compare DICE to NorthC, because I've never used NorthC, but
I'll offer some comments anyway.  Although I own both Manx Aztec C5.0d
and DICE, I have been using DICE almost exclusively for almost
everything I write.

DICE offers a much nicer compiler for developing under 2.0 (or
switching quickly between 1.3 and 2.0 development).  It is also
embellished with some very interesting features that can't be found
elsewhere:  auto inits, dynamic stack, dynamic libraries, etc.  Matt
seems to put a lot of thought into DICE, and things seem to be so
simple to use.  I love having online documentation and full library
source code, and Matt's support is wonderful too.

Spending your money on DICE and a set of 2.0 Autodocs from CATS makes
for a very nice combination.  I'm quite pleased with it.

The only things missing from DICE are:  a Unix compatible Make utility,
a profiler, and (most importantly) a symbolic debugger.  Matt does
offer his own Dmake utility which is "different', and I've hacked up
PDMake to run bug-free under 2.0 with Wshell so I am happy.

Not to take anything away from Manx.  The Manx compiler is good too.
Version 5.2 should be release real soon now to fix all those nasty
bugs.  If it produced standard Amiga object files, I would be a lot
happier camper.  Maybe one day.

Ben
-- 
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