Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!resrch
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Need recommendation on Modula-2 compiler
Message-ID: <2058@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 23 Dec 88 14:43:53 GMT
Sender: resrch@van-bc.UUCP
Lines: 66

In <12749@cup.portal.com>, dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins) writes:
> There are three available.  Which one you choose should depend on what you
> like.
>
> I have TDI Modula-2.  I think it is fine, when combined with a
> public-domain utility that gives simple error message formatting, instead
> of forcing you to use TDI's integrated editor.
>
> I like TDI because it is *NOT* an integrated package.  It is more like a
> component system.  I am free to use whatever editor I like, and glue it
> together with TDI M2 by means of ARexx (if I ever get around to getting
> ARexx).

Benchmark modula-2 also allows you to use the editor of your choice. It is by
no means tied to the integrated editor. As a matter of fact, my biggest
complaint was with the editor, which is a MicroEmacs clone. My usual way of
using it was to edit with CED (prior to CEDPro),, and to switch back to the
benchmark editor for compile/error correction/link/run cycle. Any major editing
was always with CED. It can also be run from the CLI.

> I can't really speak for the others, but there was a recent issue of
> AmigaWorld that reviewed all three.

I can't speak for the latest version of the TDI product, because I got
thoroughly disgusted with the first package and the first upgrade (which cost
an additional $50, just to get a whole new set of bugs). I can, however, speak
for Benchmark.

Benchmark is in most respects, a great package, with few exceptions. The
exceptions are the editor (not a big deal, but it would have been nice if Leon
had documented the interface so we could integrate another editor into the
package), and the few 'not quite M2' things.

The other thing that has been keeping me from recommending Benchmark is that
Avante-Garde and Oxxi were embroiled in a bitter battle over rights to the
package. One result of this was that the early buyers, who bought beta versions
(beta, he says, thinking that there were probably less bugs in the alpha
Benchmark than in the latest from TDI), on the promise of receiving a full
release version when the product came to market, were being left out in the
cold, with no explanation from the author. my feeling was that if he could
abandon those that supported him, that he was not to be trusted to support
anyone else who bought the product.

I am happy to report that this situation has drastically changed, and that
Avante-Garde has mailed out letters to beta buyers that contain details on how
to obtain the upgrade they are entitled to., so my major objection to Benchmark
is gone, and I feel I can recommend it highly.

Just to further confound the issue, TDI is no longer the North American
distributor of the compiler from M2S (the original authors of the TDI product).
M2S will be releasing an all new, single pass compiler, based on the ETH
compiler (as are M2Amiga and Benchmark), and will be sending letters to all
registered TDI owners advising them of the upgrade offer. The new product will
be called M2Sprint, and sounds like a winner. It will come with full source for
the libraries.

-larry

--
"Intelligent CPU?  I thought you said Intel CPU!" 
        -Anonymous IBM designer-
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ 
|   //   Larry Phillips                                                |
| \X/    lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca or uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips  |
|        COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322                                        |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+