jay@garfield.UUCP (10/10/86)
Could anyone who has used the Aztec C compiler on the Commodore C-128 kindly give a review of the compiler. I would be interested in knowing about its ideal hardware configuration, and also its ability on cross compiling to native 65xx and 85xx code, the size of the object code in the 3 environments (64, 128 & CP/M) and execution speeds. Lastly the price and the versions available (commercial, developers, personal ?) Thank you very much.
Leisner.Henr@xerox.ARPA (marty) (10/15/86)
I've been using Aztec C at work for the last two years in the following versions: CP/M-80 commercial Commodore 64 version (compiled on CP/M) CP/M-80 to Appledos cross compiler with library support hacked to support Aim-65 I'm happy with the the CP/M version (1.06D, much better than 1.05G). This is used on the Commodore 128 in CP/M mode. I use the compiler to write real time control code and am satisfied with its efficiency. There are a number of miscellenous bugs in the libraries and the compiler occassionally does wierd things (maybe once every 3 months). This I've found acceptable. The compiler runs moderately fast and produces relatively efficient code. The Commodore 64 compiler is another story all together. Reading between the lines in Manx's documentation indicates it wasn't easy to get a Unix compatible library up and running for the file system. In addition, a 6502 architecture presents a number of technical problems. Manx seems to have solves them at the expense of speed and space (i.e recursive software is supported through a software stack, there are 8 register variables on the base page, etc.). I don't pretend to be a Commodore guru, but I wouldn't want to write code to support the 64/128 mode. Using only the CP/M mode, it works like a CP/M machine. If you want to access the hardware from a C program there seems to be various ways to do it. All in all, I feel Manx delivers a quality product which works. marty