hall@ittral.UUCP (Doug Hall) (06/09/84)
[real sites don't eat lines]
Several weeks ago I posted a request for information on good CP/M text
editors. I was interested mostly in public domain stuff, but asked for
info on commercially available editors as well.
Twenty-six people responded. Out of these twenty six people, twenty-four
said "TURBO Pascal! A good text editor and a great Pascal compiler, too."
So I bought it. And it really is a great package. For about 50 bucks you
get a really nice editor and Pascal compiler. The text editor has a
command structure similar to MicroPro's WordStar; I had no trouble
adapting to it, even though I'd never used WordStar before. So the text
editor comes highly recommended. But wait, there's more...
The Pascal compiler alone is easily worth the price of the package. I'm
using an Apple //e with a Z-80 card, and I would venture to say that
for the money TURBO Pascal is one of the best Pascal compilers available
for the Apple. It compiles down to Z-80 code (compared with Apple Pascal,
which compiles to interpreted p-code), and compiles and runs very fast.
Here are some comparisons:
Sieve benchmark (1 iteration): Apple Pascal --- 52 seconds
TURBO Pascal --- 5 seconds
Empty loops (1,000,000 times): Apple Pascal --- 600 seconds
TURBO Pascal --- 46 seconds
Given that Apple Pascal is p-code, the above figures aren't all that
surprising, but many's the time I've wished for a faster Pascal than
Apple Pascal; now I have it. Very compatible, too. I have moved about
20 programs over from Apple Pascal to TURBO, usually with only minor
changes necessary, sometimes none at all.
TURBO Pascal allows the compiled code to be placed on disk (in a .COM
file) or directly into memory where it may be executed immediately. In
both cases the compilation is quite fast, much faster than Apple Pascal.
TURBO also allows overlays.
Well, that's about it. I'm quite impressed with the package. It's one of
the few pieces of software I've bought that I really feel was worth the
money. By the way, I don't mean to start a debate over Apple Pascal and
Turbo Pascal, as they both have their places and I still use them both.
Apple Pascal was the only Pascal compiler I had to compare with.
I'd be interested in comments from other TURBO users.
Doug Hall
ITT Telecom Business & Consumer Communications
Raleigh, NC
ittvax!ittral!hall