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From: jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: PL/M
Keywords: software development, Modula-2
Message-ID: <17669@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 31 Aug 88 16:17:26 GMT
References: <17377@gatech.edu> <6151@dasys1.UUCP>
Reply-To: jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 20


      Much to my suprise, JPI TopSpeed Modula-2 turns out to be an adequate 
system for low-level development.  It generates ROMable code, the utilities
for organizing code and data spaces are provided, very little run-time
system is included implicitly (and due to a clever linker, none is included
without need), and library source is available.  The compiler can generate
an interrupt routine in-line, with no need for an assembler low-level
interrupt routine.  The downside is that the documentation for use in embedded 
applications is inadequate and some modifications to the run-time startup 
routine are needed to make it work in that environment.

      Unlike PL/M, JPI offers a modern working environment, generally
similar to the Borland Turbo line.  But it's a serious compiler, and can
go head-to-head with C compilers on some benchmarks.  Modula-2, of course,
is a much less error-prone language than C, which is of real value when the
target environment is hostile and debugging facilities are weak.  As is
typical with Modula, a high percentage of errors are caught at compile time.
I find that most of my programs run when first downloaded to the target.

					John Nagle