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From: franco@iuvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Re: Program Development on the ST
Message-ID: <54600016@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Mar-86 16:26:00 EST
Article-I.D.: iuvax.54600016
Posted: Fri Mar  7 16:26:00 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Mar-86 02:23:29 EST
References: <2018@uwmacc.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:uwmacc:-201800:iuvax:54600016:000:1274
Nf-From: iuvax!franco    Mar  7 16:26:00 1986


I don't think the DRI C supplied with the dev kit is slow - in fact it may
be the fastest game in town.  I estimate that it is at least 3 times faster
than OSS Pascal based on running some simple fibonacci programs (actually,
the fibonacci result difference was greater than 3 times - but to be
conservative I used the factor 3).  However, the time to compile is long and
compiling is awkward (as supplied by Atari).  One quickly learns, however to
overcome these defects: Get TOS in ROM, upgrade to 1MEG and install a 650K
RAMDISK - then pare down the libraries a bit, create the appropriate batch
files, put everything into the RAMDISK and go to town.  There is one serious
defect with the DRI C compiler, however: some C like functions (e.g. fgetc..)
do not work the way they are supposed to.  So, for example, i/o is done a bit
differently with DRI C than with other C variants.  My colleague next door has
begun taking the drastic step of changing many of these functions so they look
like C functions.  

One other comment: the dev kit has indeed lost its value - the reason is that
almost everything in it is now in the Public Domain in one form or another
(except, perhaps, the Compiler (Gee - I wonder why?)).  It was a bargain when
it was first introduced, though.