chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (07/14/83)
Actually, at least in the C compilers we have from Whitesmiths, the
problem is not that the compiler doesn't initialize statics to zero.
The problem is that the compiler doesn't handle statics, or global
variables, correctly AT ALL. (begin flame) The program
int variable;
main (argc, argv) { ; }
will produce, when compiled, the error message
Undefined: variabl
(or something like that). Would you believe, Whitesmiths doesn't
define a global variable unless you initialize it? It's true! I spent
*hours* agonizing over this one once. That ain't C. A variable that
is declared outside of any program block should NOT default to
external! Declaring a variable twice is an error (though Unix &
friends kindly handle it correctly anyway). There should be exactly
one occurrance of "int foo;" or "int foo=x;"; any other declaration
should have the word "external" in front of it. But NOOO, they
couldn't do THAT. That'd make it too easy to use! (end flame)
Other than that, Whitesmith's seems to be a pretty reasonable
implementation.
- Chris
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CSNet: chris@umcp-cs
ARPA: chris.umcp-cs@UDel-Relayrehmi@umcp-cs.UUCP (07/16/83)
Whitesmith's is a really flunky implementation. In particular, one of
it's many losses over which I have been losing much sleep is
initialization, globablity, and pointer manipulation. These act in a
most bizzarre (sp?) fashion on our Vax -> z80 version.
In fact, I recently got Aztec C for Apple ]['s, and it adheres very
faithfully indeed to K&R. It looks identical to V7 C. It even has the
basic i/o syscalls and ioctls and a kernel (except that there is no
seperate mode for it). Very very very nice. Except it compiles slow
trying to get off of floppies.
I think that says something about the z80 and/or Whitesmith's. I've
come to hate both intensely.
-Rehmi
--
By the fork, spoon, and exec of The Great Basfour.
Arpa: rehmi.umcp-cs@udel-relay
Uucp:...{allegra,seismo}!umcp-cs!rehmiucbesvax.turner@ucbcad.UUCP (07/17/83)
#R:umcp-cs:-79200:ucbesvax:4800017:000:425 ucbesvax!turner Jul 16 19:53:00 1983 As far as I'm concerned, anybody who doesn't have an atrocity story about a Whitesmiths C compiler just hasn't been around. I worked at a place where they ordered a z80 C from Whitesmith's to write some small, slow board-diagnostic code. No big deal, right? After a while, they just gave up, and went back to what they'd been using before, which was BASIC and assembler. Michael Turner ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner