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From: dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: M2Amiga, a new Modula-2 compiler
Message-ID: <8711161753.AA05748@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Mon, 16-Nov-87 12:53:16 EST
Article-I.D.: cory.8711161753.AA05748
Posted: Mon Nov 16 12:53:16 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Nov-87 04:26:31 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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>Same in Modula-2, only difference: M2 routines clean the stack, fixed number
>of parameters (in difference to C) makes this possible.

	You mean the calee restores the stack rather than the caller?  That's
an interesting nitpick, but the designers of C wanted programmers to be able
to make calls to the same routine with a varying number of arguments.  This
doesn't make the code any slower, just slightly longer.

> Amiga.Lib pops these stack arguments into the appropriate registers, loads
> the library base into A6, then calls the appropriate library routine relative

>In M2Amiga the library base is loaded pc relative not from an absolute address,
>and the library offset is coded as a 16-bit value instead of a 32-bit external
>absolute value. This the difference to C stubs.

	Hate to say this, but it's pc relative in Aztec as well, at least
with the small code model.  and the library offset is coded as a 16 bit value
(you can't HAVE 32 bit offsets with the 68000).

	Still, I admit the library interface in both Aztec and Lattice are
somewhat inefficient.  Lattice will fix this in 4.0, hopefully Aztec will
come up with something to (but as I said before the overhead usually isn't
worth optimization when compared to actual execution time of the library
function).

>> In any case, it looks like Amiga-based M2 compilers are evolving at least as
>> quickly as C compilers, making M2 a really viable language for the Amiga.
>
>I hope my friends back in Switzerland will soon release the source level
>debugger! There will be real competition to C!
>Hey Claudio, maybe you can tell us about the state of the debugger.

	All I can say is..... Go for it!

						-Matt