Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!hal!nic.MR.NET!shamash!nis!ems!pwcs!stag!daemon
From: to_stdnet@stag.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: GEM for Sozobon C
Message-ID: <643@stag.UUCP>
Date: 3 Nov 88 20:15:49 GMT
Sender: daemon@stag.UUCP
Lines: 29

From: dal@syntel.UUCP (Dale Schumacher)

> Why use Sobozon C when Mark Williams C is available is and such a fine
> product at a great price?? You can buy MWC for as low as $125.

Well, for one thing, Sozobon is FREE.  Secondly, it comes with SOURCE CODE
for EVERYTHING.  This may not be important to many people, but I feel a lot
better about something if I have the source code, since that means I can
FIX it if I find a bug, and I can understand it and learn from it otherwise.
Thirdly, it generates better code than Mark Williams C.  And finally, it
doesn't create problems with the environment.  These problems are not
immediately obvious to the casual user, but Mark Williams C uses some very
sloppy methods of passing long argument lines and information about the
'isatty()' status of file handles.

Mark Williams C is a very fine product in many ways, and is probably better
supported (by the users, I've never liked the support I've gotten from the
Company) than any other C for the ST.  It is currently a better choice for
projects that use GEM or floating point.  I don't write many programs that
use either GEM or fp, so I doesn't matter to me.  Also, I got Alcyon C as
part of the ST developer's kit (a LLOOOONNNNGGG time ago), and Sozobon has
the final advantage of being upwardly compatible with all my old code.

--
      Dale Schumacher                         399 Beacon Ave.
      (alias: Dalnefre')                      St. Paul, MN  55104
      ...pwcs!stag!syntel!dal                 United States of America
    "It's not reality that's important, but how you perceive things."