ins_armr@jhunix.UUCP (Rudy M Rumohr) (04/11/86)
I was wondering if anyone has heard about products from the Modula Corporation.
They had advertisements a couple of months running in Byte in the latter half
of last year, and I haven't heard a whole lot about them or any of their
products since. They purported to offer Modula-2 compilers for the Apple //-
series, the IBM-PC, and Mac, and also supposedly sold the Lilith. They were
based in Provo, Utah, I believe...
Since I am looking for a Modula-2 compiler for my //c, I would like to know if
these guys are still around, and if anybody has used any of their stuff. As I
understood, their compiler was only $90.00!
Also, if anybody knows any other Modula-2 compilers for Apple, if you'd be so
kind as to drop me a line...
As always, thanks in advance!
--
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"And the knowledge that they fear/Is a weapon to be held against us..."--Rushtreid@MITRE.ARPA (Thomas Reid) (04/13/86)
I have not used the Modula Corporation's products but I did get some sets of literature for a Modula-2 course I am teaching. The Apple ][ is not one of the machines that they appear to support. They do have compilers (read interpreters) for the Mac and the PC. The compilers produce M-code which is then emulated. Their address is 950 North University Ave., Provo, Utah. Order desk phone is (800) 545-4842, information (801) 375-7400. The Modula-2 Research Institute at the same address (phone (801) 375-7402) has the source to the M2M "Lilith" Compiler for $160 if you want to roll your own. One of the two used to sell Liliths also but they were not cheap. Wirth has since been working on a "Ceres" 32032-based machine which may be cheaper but I have not seen any outlets for it (Anybody out there know?).
jac@osu-eddie.UUCP (James Clausing) (04/15/86)
In article <8604130123.AA02656@mitre.ARPA> treid@MITRE.ARPA (Thomas Reid) writes: >I have not used the Modula Corporation's products but I did get some sets >of literature for a Modula-2 course I am teaching. The Apple ][ is not one >of the machines that they appear to support. They do have compilers (read >interpreters) for the Mac and the PC. The compilers produce M-code which >is then emulated. > They now have an application that creates stand-alone applications on the Mac (I'm waiting for mine to arrive in the mail) so there is no more need for the interpreter to be on the same disk with the application. I don't know the speed of the resulting programs, but the old interpreter used to move right along (if you didn't mind waiting forever for it to compile and link). I have some friends (not on the net) who have been using the newer version for the Mac for several months and are very happy with it (even considering using it in an undergraduate class). Jim Clausing jac@ohio-state.arpa (Standard disclaimer: The above opinions are probably mine, it is only coincidence if they happen to be someone elses too. Does Ohio State have opinions? I doubt it. I am, however, a reasonably satisfied customer.)
ralphw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) (04/18/86)
They sent out some Beta test copies a year or so ago, but I think their efforts are fizzling. They told me (6 months to a year ago) that porting the compiler to an Apple // was a 'real hard problem'. Pecan is it, as far as I've heard. (They're selling Volition's modula-2 p-code compiler, which presumably will work with the 6502 (DOS 3.3 & ProDOS 'soon) native code generator. It would be nice if it were compatible with Apple UCSD Pascal) -- - Ralph W. Hyre, Jr. Internet: ralphw@c.cs.cmu.edu (cmu-cs-c.arpa) Usenet: ralphw@mit-eddie.uucp Fido: Ralph Hyre at Net 129, Node 0 (Pitt-Bull) Phone: (412)CMU-BUGS
barad@brand.UUCP (04/20/86)
In article <1662@osu-eddie.UUCP> jac@osu-eddie.UUCP (James Clausing) writes: > > They now have an application that creates stand-alone applications >on the Mac (I'm waiting for mine to arrive in the mail) so there is no >more need for the interpreter to be on the same disk with the application. >I don't know the speed of the resulting programs, but the old interpreter >used to move right along (if you didn't mind waiting forever for it to >compile and link). I have some friends (not on the net) who have been >using the newer version for the Mac for several months and are very happy >with it (even considering using it in an undergraduate class). > > Jim Clausing > jac@ohio-state.arpa I have been extensively using Mac Modula-2 for several months. The application that converts your *.LOD file into a stand-alone application is not quite what you think it is. All it does is integrate the interpreter into the resulting application (this accounts for the ~21K increase in size). So, what are the advantages and disadvantages? Well, you can create your own application icons for one thing. You can distribute the program and not have to rely on the anyone else having the interpreter around. Disadvantages: you still have interpreted code (but still quite good for interpreters) and you carry an extra copy of the interpreter around. Imagine what this could mean if you converted 25 programs this way and had them on the same disk... One frustration that I continually have with Mac Modula-2 is that there is no debugger. I could really use a symbolic debugger for my programs. I have been Beta-Testing a new version of Mac Modula-2 that Alan Landes of Modula Corp. send me for the past few days. It is the only version that will work with the Mac+ (apparently, previous versions had some funny non-standard calls and the new ROMS didn't like it). It still has some HFS quirks to it. I hope they will be fix in the final release. Does anyone know of any Modula-2 for the Mac that compiles into native 68K code? Good Luck... -- Herb Barad [USC - Signal and Image Processing Institute] USENET: ...!sdcrdcf!usc-oberon!brand!barad or ...!{lbl-csam|trwrb|trwspp}!trwspf!herb ARPANET: barad%brand@usc-ecl.ARPA