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Path: utzoo!utcs!disus
From: disus@utcs.UUCP (Jacques Giraud c/o Disus)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Problems with Aztec C on XL
Message-ID: <701@utcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Jun-85 09:41:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcs.701
Posted: Wed Jun 19 09:41:46 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Jun-85 10:12:47 EDT
Reply-To: disus@utcs.UUCP (Jacques Giraud c/o Disus)
Organization: University of Toronto - General Purpose UNIX
Lines: 44
Summary: 


I have been using Aztec C on an XL for about 6 months and would look
to know if anyone else in Netland has had the same problems that I have
had.

It seems that when I do a compile or use Z heavily the machine crashes. When
I do a heap check with MacsBug it turns out that the heap is corrupted.
Several releases ago I mentioned this problem to Manx. They were not to helpful.
I just got release E and find that there have been some mods made to improve
this problem but they don't go far enough.

In desperation, I started trying to find out what causes this problem. This
is what I found and how to fix it.

It seems that the compiler crashes when it tries to scroll. The reason for
this is when a Manx utility fires up (eg. Z, ln, cc, as, shell) it does
a call to MaxMem and then allocates all the memory to itself. They leave
a small amount free so that any call that allocates heap space will work.
It works fine on a Mac but on an XL it crashes. I went in and zapped
the constant that controls the amount of memory left. In the case of Z
I changed it to 0x8000 and for most of the other programs I changed it
to 0x4000.

If you would like the exact patches, please send me mail. If there is
enough interest I will post them to the net.

On the subject on Manx bashing let me make the following comments:-

In release C, I got make and loved it. The documentation said there
was Ctags somewhere but I didn't get it. They also added an option
to Z for a startup file. That didn`t work either.
In release D I got ctags. I loved that. Make didn't work anymore.
In release E, a new version of the shell came out that supports
menu bars. There is a command to turn menus off (set +m). It makes the XL crash
every time. They also added a copyright to ctags. Adding that stopped
ctags from working, so I just went back to the old version.
They claim that the Z startup file works fine know,but I havent tried
it.

Did this happen to anyone else?

In general I like the Aztec stuff but I find their control quality lacking.

Jacques Giraud