Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!drutx!druhi!lbl
From: lbl@druhi.UUCP (LocklearLB)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Re: Mini-review of Megamax C
Message-ID: <526@druhi.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Jun-86 11:31:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: druhi.526
Posted: Wed Jun  4 11:31:26 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jun-86 07:09:18 EDT
References: <564@ssc-bee.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Information System Labs, Denver, Co
Lines: 55
Summary: more observations

In article <564@ssc-bee.UUCP>, ditzel@ssc-bee.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) writes:
> 
> I recently received Megamax C and my first impressions are very favorable.
>

I too recently purchased Megamax C.  I really like the package and agree
with what Charles wrote about it.  I do have a couple of observations that
I would like to share.

1) I/O redirection does not work correctly with Megamax C.  I first heard 
about this on Compuserve, and I have since tried it for myself.  I tried
redirecting output from a program supplied with the Mirco C shell into
a program compiled with Megamax.  The Megamax program is supposed to filter
the standard input and print some results on stdout.  The Megamax program
doubled the input lines and inserted garbage characters before sending 
output to stdout.  If stdin was not redirected in the shell, then the program
worked correctly.

I also tried redirecting stdout and the program crashed!  Obviously this is
a bug in the libraries that needs to be fixed.  Especially since the 
documentation states explicitly that i/o redirection should work correctly.

I must add, however, that this is the only major bug that I have heard about,
or experienced.  Everything else seems to work as advertised.

2) The icon editing feature of the RCS supplied with Megamax is good, but
I wish you could save/load icons to/from the disk.  This would be a timesaver
when using a set of "standard" icons in an application.

3) My overall impression of the package is very favorable.  The documentation
is fairly comprehensive and mercifully concise.  

Developing programs with this package is much more pleasureable than with 
the developer's kit.  I have a one meg 520ST with a  half-meg ramdisk.  I 
can fit everything needed for the edit/compile/link cycle (compiler, linker, 
headers, libraries, editor, shell) on the ramdisk and still have enough space 
(>100K) for my source files.  

The compile/edit cycle is great when running under the graphical shell.  
First you edit the program, then compile.  If the compiler finds bugs, the 
editor is reinvoked and loads your source file in one window and a file 
containing your error messages in another.  The error messages even make 
sense!  Since you are running under the ramdisk everything is very fast 
and convenient.  It certainly blows away the DRI development environment 
in terms of productivity and ease of use.

If you don't need to compile programs that redirect i/o, or if you already
have the developer's kit for compiling those kinds of programs ( I do ), then
I heartily recommend Megamax C.

Barry Locklear
AT&T Information Systems Labs
Denver, CO
ihnp4!druhi!lbl
(303) 538-4954