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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!akgua!gatech!arnold
From: arnold@gatech.UUCP (Mister Snufilupagus)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: Prime C pointers (and compilers)
Message-ID: <10014@gatech.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 2-Sep-84 15:59:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.10014
Posted: Sun Sep  2 15:59:43 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Sep-84 04:24:24 EDT
References: <12441@sri-arpa.UUCP> <365@vu44.UUCP>, <313@west44.UUCP>
Organization: Sesame Street
Lines: 42

>>By the way, we have the C compiler sold by Prime, but it's *very*
>>slow (spelled SSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOsnore). Does anyone know of
>>a better C implementation, running under PRIMOS rev 19?
>>
>>	Jack Jansen, {philabs|decvax}!mcvax!vu44!jack
>I did a C compiler for our Prime.  The compiler itself it pretty fast.
>However it generates PMA (Prime Macro Assembler) and *BOY* is that assembler
>slow!
>
>west44!lee

We here at Georgia Tech sell a C compiler for Prime 400 and 50 series
computers.  It runs under and requires our Software Tools Subsystem (which
provides a *wonderful*, Unix-like programming environment).

The compiler currently generates binary directly, and is *fast*!  (Of
course our machines are old, so they are *slow*).  Anyway, pointers in GT C
are always 32 bits.  We don't use the byte pointer.  Characters are actually
16 bits, right adjusted, and 0-filled words.  The performance would be
considerably *slower* if we used the field register operations to pack the
characters, and the space cost isn't really that bad, considering the
speed gain.

The compiler used to generate assembler, and then call PMA to assemble it.
PMA was 50% of compile time!  This is still available as an option.

To be truthful, the compiler does still have some bugs in it; unfortunately
we don't have the expertise or manpower to fix them.  It is usable, but
not quite up to the "high quality" of the Unix compilers.  We do have
a very good run time library for it; almost all of Section 3 of the manual
that can be implemented, has been, along with some of the i/o system calls.
Furthermore, one can mix C routines with routines compiled by other Prime
language compilers (Fortran, Pascal, Pl1, etc.).

I apologize if this sounds like too much of an advertisement.  I don't mean
for it to; just publicizing the availability of other Prime C compilers....
-- 
Arnold Robbins
CSNET: arnold@gatech	ARPA:	arnold%gatech.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
UUCP: { akgua, allegra, hplabs, ihnp4 }!gatech!arnold

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?