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From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Contructive discussions on Apple future (Was:Re: (none))
Message-ID: <9883@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 20 Mar 89 04:51:36 GMT
References: <8903181257.aa27040@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> <931@n8emr.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 39

In article <931@n8emr.UUCP> lwv@n8emr.UUCP (Larry W. Virden) writes:
>I will begin.  What _I_ want on my IIgs is a FAST C compiler.  I need not
>have toolbox support.  I do want an ANSI C compiler (current projections
>are that the final approval of the ANSI stds will occur in the next 5 weeks).
>I do want code that runs fast.  And I would appreciate code which, though 
>it might run much slower, was the result of a VERY FAST compile.  What
>I mean here is that during development I dont care how fast the code is as
>much as I care how fast I can get TO the executable code.

As a member of the ANSI C standardization committee (X3J11), it may be
of interest for me to note that the ANSI-specific C features are not my
first priority for IIGS C compilers.  Compilation speed even with APW C
can be enhanced considerably by (a) keeping source modules small and
using a "make"-like procedure to reduce recompilation, and (b) adding an
accelerator such as TransWarp GS.  I take for granted that APW users use
a hard disk; floppies are too painful for this.  My most-wanted feature
for IIGS C is support for ByteWorks' ORCA desktop debugger.  It is pretty
obvious how to implement this, and I'm hoping someone is working on it.

Toolbox support is pretty much an "add-on"; whether or not it exists is
independent of the real design choices for a IIGS C implementation.

>The other thing that I personally want on my IIgs is Minix, or something
>like it.  Minix is a Unix-alike which permits multitasking and I believe
>even multiuser capabilities.  I want to be able to run a 'subset'
>of Unix here at the house, without going out and selling my GS and buying
>a MS-DOS machine or an Atari.

Any substantially UNIX-like system for the IIGS would be very useful.
You're not likely to get this out of Apple, though, because they think
of the Apple II line as for kiddies and "obviously" you don't want to
turn kiddies loose in a UNIX shell.

>Now I am certainly willing to work on Minix - but I am not even going to
>start until I get a good C compiler.

I don't see why APW C isn't suitable.  I use it for lots of C projects.
It could stand some improvement and expanded libraries, but we can come
up with the latter ourselves.