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From: hull@hao.UUCP (Howard Hull)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: AmigaTerm & Lattice_C
Message-ID: <1901@hao.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 4-Jan-86 17:03:42 EST
Article-I.D.: hao.1901
Posted: Sat Jan  4 17:03:42 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Jan-86 05:46:13 EST
References: <1889@hao.UUCP> <607@baylor.UUCP>
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From the referenced article by Peter da Silva, commenting on my article...
> >  ...you should copy the ".q" file to a
> > blank disk before the compiler metamorphosizes it.
> 
> Why? I'm not familiar with Lattice 'C' on the Amiga, but Lattice 'C' on the
> IBM PC does exactly the same thing. I have never had LC2 clobber a .q file
> prematurely, nor have I ever found a use for the .q file. All it is is a
> compiler intermediate. Do you keep your /tmp/ctm files around on UNIX?
 
No.  I had just gotten the wrapper off the Lattice_C compiler, and was going
through the book "serially" using AmigaTerm as a goat.  I thought I might want
(read: subsequently *have* to) use some of the LC2 flags to get out of one
kind of mess or another.  I wouldn't have had the problem at all if Lattice
had prioritized the order in which the commands were presented in terms of
ease of use.  Is it not conventional to put the preferred commands (i.e. "LC")
first?  Or is it like in hardware, where everybody automatically knows to head
straight for the Appendix and try to figure it all out from there... :-)

Comment: Bruce Barrett's "Amiga Reference Card" posted by Dale Luck has been
the most helpful alternative to trying remember it all starting on Page 4-1
going through page 4-9 of the Lattice C book just to get the flags.

***** Mild Flame ***** (Pass this by if you've got your momentum up.)

I remember once bringing a thick manual to the office of a work associate
(after he had asked over the phone "how do I do xxxx?".)  I thought I was
helping him by showing him where in this thickness were the 20 or so pages
that applied to his particular question.  He sneered and said "But I wanted
to know how to do it *without* having to read the documentation!".  Although
I might have instantly reacted "well, what a fine smart-ass we have here", I
instead thought it over for a bit and wrote up a condensed one-sheet summary.
When you realize that for every complex function we implement for which we
do not also produce a Top Level Summary (i.e., you have to close your eyes
to miss it) either in an appendix or on a cover or thick tab sheet/card,
we dissipate n programmers times m hours of effort, which surely is worth
more to the Gross National Product than the time it would have taken to
write and publish a decent summary.
							     Howard Hull
[If yet unproven concepts are outlawed in the range of discussion...
                   ...Then only the deranged will discuss yet unproven concepts]
        {ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | harpo!seismo } !hao!hull