Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!think!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!madd
From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: When will Microsoft give us a *REAL WORLD* C Compiler
Message-ID: <21992@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 24 Apr 88 18:07:55 GMT
References: <11622@duke.cs.duke.edu> <633@psu-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group
Lines: 36

In article <633@psu-cs.UUCP> alexc@psu-cs.UUCP writes:
[response to a user's complaint about the state of Microsoft C]
|	As you may have already know that Microsoft have tried to build a
|good C-compiler for the IBM-PC ( Brain damaged ! ) env. REAL LIFE C
|PROGRAMMER DO NOT DO MUCH C PROCOMMING ON PC's THEY USE UNIX OR U**N INSTEAD.
|Of course, if your client only have access to PCs then you just have to find
|a way to correct the problem. 

I hate to burst your bubble, but there are quite a few PC's out there.
This means a large market.  This means money.  As a programmer, I'm
interested in maintaining a decent influx of cash.  *That* is why
people program for PC's.  People use C on PC's because it's a flexible
language that's pretty portable, which is also why it's used on so
many other systems.

Also note that the "PC environment" is not necessarily MS-DOS.  UNIX
also runs on PC's in various flavors, and so do other operating
systems that aren't so popular.

|Let see you write a C compiler for the IBM-PC running MS-DOS WITHOUT ANY
|MISTAKES ( 100% ERROR FREE ) on the first try !  ( NO ERRORS WHEN YOU TRY TO
|COMPILE THE SOURCE CODE FOR THAT COMPILIER then you couse say ......... !!

Well, Microsoft C is on version 5.1.  This means a minimum of 6
revisions of their compiler have gone out (1.0 - 5.0 major and now 5.1
to fix a plethora of bugs in 5.0).  You'd think that after that many
major revisions, most of the bugs would be gone, especially those
which users have complained about repeatedly.

|	Anyway, you could send e-mail to Microsoft and see you could get
|an answer. Their e-mail path from our site is : tektronix!uw-beaver!microsof

Obviously you haven't dealt with Microsoft.  Their response time and
usefulness-of-responses leave something to be desired.

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu