alpert@chovax.DEC (12/04/85)
[] Has anyone done any comparisons between the Pro-Line "C Power" C compiler and the Promal development system? I would like to buy one or the other (but not both!). I've heard good remarks about Promal here and other places, but I think I'd prefer a real C compiler rather than a "C-like" language. However, for all I know there may be compelling reasons to go the Promal route. How do these products' I/O and math libraries compare? Is the C Power library compatible with K&R? How do their execution speeds compare? Are royalties required if one distributes software written with these systems? How does the "feel" of the development environments provided by these products compare? (I know, I ask a lot of questions for a guy from Jersey... :-) Bob Alpert DEC Software Services 6 Executive Campus, Rt. 70 Cherry Hill, NJ 08002 ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-chovax!alpert
jrg@hpda.UUCP (Jeff Glasson) (12/11/85)
In article <1586@decwrl.UUCP> alpert@chovax.DEC writes: > >Has anyone done any comparisons between the Pro-Line "C Power" C compiler >and the Promal development system? > I have both. I purchased PROMAL when it first came out and used it fairly frequently. The language syntax is Pascal-like. The problem is the syntax is different enough from both C and Pascal to be annoying. I don't like the forced indentation. It restricts programming sytle too much. Pointer variable dereferencing is also wierd. Also there is no record or structure type. The only variable types available are BYTE, INT, WORD (used for addresses and unsigneds), and REAL. You can also make arrays of the above types. From a higher level, the PROMAL compiler is fast (once it's loaded in memory, it says there) and there is a file called the workspace which acts like a RAMdisk. This makes the edit/compile/run cycle pretty fast. About six months later, I purchased Proline C. It is a full K&R C compiler. All the K&R features (except bit fields and some structure initializations) are implemented. Proline C allows linking of seperatly compiled files and the creation of your own libraries. PROMAL has no such feature. If you don't have Flash!, C-power is pretty slow to use. The compiler is copy protected so you have to do disk swapping (unless you have two drives) when you compile. The compiler is loaded every time you use it. >How do these products' I/O and math libraries compare? Is the C Power >library compatible with K&R? The PROMAL library has routines similar to the stdio routines. The PROMAL math library is written in PROMAL and must be compiled in with your program (remember no seperately compiled modules). The C-power package comes with a full stdio package and some other Unix section 2 and 3 calls. The semantics for some of the calls are different due to differences between Unix and the C-64's operating system. C-power also comes with a grep-like utility and a nroff-like text processor. Source is included for both so you can modify them as much as you like. > How do their execution speeds compare? Both PROMAL and C-power execute about 30-50 times faster than interpreted BASIC (programs that don't use floating point. I haven't benchmarked floating point programs). >Are royalties required if one distributes software written with these >systems? It you buy the PROMAL developer's package (about $100) no royalties are required. I am not sure of Proline's policy. Can someone help me out on this one?? >How does the "feel" of the development environments provided >by these products compare? Both packages come with an editor, compiler, and a "shell" with I/O redirection. If you are used to using Unix, it takes a little while to get used to using the PROMAL executive, all the commands have different names. The C-power shell has all the familiar Unix commands: ls, rm, pr, mv, etc. In conclusion I have found using Proline C-power preferable to PROMAL. Actually I haven't written any new code in PROMAL since I got the C compiler. I'm sure I have left out some features of both packages, but this reply is long enough already :-) > > Bob Alpert > > DEC Software Services > 6 Executive Campus, Rt. 70 > Cherry Hill, NJ 08002 > > ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-chovax!alpert Jeff Glasson Hewlett-Packard ISO 19447 Pruneridge Mail Stop 47U2 Cupertino, CA 95014 ...!{ucbvax,hplabs}!hpda!jrg
dwl10@amdahl.UUCP (Dave Lowrey) (12/19/85)
> >Are royalties required if one distributes software written with these >systems? The C-Power libraries are 'in the public domain', so you can sell the binary code produced by C-Power. The guy I talked to at Proline said that a "Program compiled with the C-Power...." plug would be appreciated. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Lowrey "To vacillate or not to vacillate, that is the question.... ....or is it?" ...!(<sun,cbosgd,ihnp4}!amdahl!dwl10 [ The opinions expressed <may> be those of the author and not necessarily those of his most eminent employer. ]