Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!tikal!hplsla!hpvcla!ericr
From: ericr@hpvcla.HP.COM (Eric Ross)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: C compilers for the ST???
Message-ID: <4730004@hpvcla.HP.COM>
Date: Fri, 16-Jan-87 20:14:52 EST
Article-I.D.: hpvcla.4730004
Posted: Fri Jan 16 20:14:52 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Jan-87 09:39:10 EST
References: <559@rayssd.RAY.COM>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA
Lines: 24

I have had the developers kit for about a year now and have been much
less than satisfied with the compiler.  The documentation is OK once
you have many examples to refer to.   My configuration is with the
Supra 20 Meg hard disk and I have been quite impressed with the
Mark Williams C compiler.  It appears to compile just about any
ANSI standard C and puts out plenty of warnings(optionally turned
off)of where you are stretching the semantics of the language and
may introduce portability problems.  (assignment of a pointer to
an integer; unused variables, etc.).  My profession is software
development on HP-UX (Unix System V) which takes advantage of C.
I have appreciated the fact that I can take a well written program
on Unix and copy it to the ST and compile it with minimal 
problems.  I have also looked at Megamax C.  It also, appears to
be an excellent implementation.  I chose MWC because Megamax
has some minor limitations(32K limits on arrays) that could
bother me.  The casual programmer will probably appreciate 
Megamax more because of its friendly interface, while the serious
developer will want MWC.  As far as the DRI compiler -- I was sick
and tired of running into one bug after another.   If I were to
do it again, I would probably buy MWC and the Abacus books and
not buy the developers kit.

Eric Ross
ihnp4!hpfcla!hpvcla!ericr