Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!necntc!linus!alliant!rosenkra
From: rosenkra@Alliant.COM (Bill Rosenkranz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: System vars, Linking
Message-ID: <1351@alliant.Alliant.COM>
Date: 6 Mar 88 21:58:30 GMT
References: <1727@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Reply-To: rosenkra@alliant.UUCP (Bill Rosenkranz)
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA
Lines: 41
Keywords: Undocumented, Clumsy


regarding the topic of linking and compilers:

i have been using the original devkit compiler/linker (i.e. Alcyon) for
almost 2 years now. yes, yes i know that mwc:

	1) is faster at compiling
	2) makes smaller executables
	3) documented (:^)

i have had only limited experience with mwc v1.x and (eventhough i used to
live in Chicago not far from mwc hq) i still prefer alcyon (i'm generally
using v4.14). does mwc support bit fields? how about LARGE arrays (>64k)?
i know when i was shopping megamax did not and mwc was not around. 

anyway, with the advent of aln (thank you Mr. Pratt...), alcyon is at least
bearable (acutally pretty good, if you know the traps :^). alan released
aln to me generally early when the project i was working on could no longer
be linked with link68 (just tooooo B I G). 

my only beef with alcyon (and it is a real annoyance) is with the inability
to redirect compiler msgs to a file (apparently it writes to CON: directly).
this is a major hassle since you have to watch the screen during EVERY compile.

i can only think of 2 ways around this: 1) set up a TSR which monitors 
writes to CON: and redirects to a log file ONLY during compiles 2) hack
and slash the c{p,0,1}68.prg files to get them to use stdout.
obviously 2) is a real pain (and probably illegal). has anyone tried 1) 
or another alternative? i spoke to alcyon and they have no remedy ( i asked
for src to do it myself :^). did they write gemlib? if so this is especially
stupid. does anyone know if mwc now outperforms alcyon (v2.x or new v3.0)?
seems like i remember it was slower in execution than alcyon, my highest
priority.

i generally use a homegrown cc and a (modified) make that (i believe) was 
originally posted on the net, gulam the shell of choice (though i wish
it had pipes....).

thanx a priori...

-bill