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From: rgoodman@cit-vax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: What a great C compiler!
Message-ID: <2449@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Thu, 23-Apr-87 22:18:51 EST
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.2449
Posted: Thu Apr 23 22:18:51 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Apr-87 08:37:55 EST
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 29
Keywords: This is what I'd like to be saying.

I constantly see the question, "I'm buying a C compiler, which do you people
recommend" being asked, but I haven't seen the definitive answer.  Perhaps
there is none.  I only know that I bought Lattice C, and it was a nasty
mistake/lesson that I'd like to avoid again.  I need a good C compiler, and
from the discussion it seems to be down to Megamax and Mark Williams.  So
what are the advantages, or are they both great?  Let me rag on Lattice C so
you know the kind of things that bother me.  Lattice C compiles very slowly.
To compile 12 C programs of about 8K each takes about 6minutes/program.  Then
another 8 minutes to link them together.  Yes, that's almost 1 1/2 hours 
for a complete recompile!  This is with the compiler/linker on a
RamDisk.  Lattice C does not support some VDI/AES commands such as
vrq_* and vsm_*.  If you divide by a constant power of 2 it replaces it
with a shift (>>n) where n is sporatically incorrect!  From what I gather
in the benchmarks (sorry I don't remember exactly, otherwise I might not
be asking for this comparison...oh I never know what things I need to save
from this newsgroup, can't save everything) it compiles C source into unusually
large binaries that run slower than other C's.  What a winning product!  To
be fair, the Lattice C book is nice.

Thanks.

Ron Goodman


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