sean1@garfield.UUCP (06/09/86)
I have used both of the C compilers, (C-Power more than Abacus C) and the C Power seems to me to be the superior. For one thing, it throws you into a shell which can then run programs you have written and compiled providing you use the "link" without the -s and name the output file with a ".sh" at the end. In the shell you type the name of the program (i.e. I have a pager which is named "more.sh" , and to run it I type "more <filename>" and it prints the file in page form) and it will load and execute. This way, you can write programs that accept parameters, just as in UNIX shells. This option is not available in the outside runnable programs. You could write yourself quite a comfortable shell using some ingenuity, like pagers, even telecommunication packages within the shell. The editor provided with C-Power seems to be far better than Abacus'. One of the major differences is Abacus' ability to change colors of text which to be honest, bugs me. I don't want to see varied colored text within my program. C-Power has an excellent Syntax Checker/Editor which tells you of any syntax errors before compiling. The C-Power's editor has 240 columns. The actual compiling and linking of the programs is painful for both of them using one drive, but it is bearable. Abacus' editor seems to be almost menu driven and, being used to UNIX systems, I prefer the C-Power way. As for the speed and efficiency, I am not sure, but both are FAST. I am sure there will be other replies with more technical information, but I wanted to tell you my opinion of it from a user's point of view.