[net.micro.mac] Megamax 2.1 Mini-Review

hamachi@UCBRENOIR (Gordon Hamachi) (09/30/85)

The latest version of Megamax C is vastly improved.  Some highlights:

	Fixed my favorite bug related to indirect function calls
	A batch facility that looks a lot like the unix shell
	A program profiler to find out where your program spends its time
	Added printer interface code
	New manual is typeset

Other good things about Megamax C:

	The documentation is very good.  It includes a listing of all
	toolbox interface routines and header files.  Manual pages for
	the standard c library are also included.  It has a usable index
	to help locate these things!

	Megamax C comes with a number of support programs, including:
		A profiler
		A batch facility
		A new text editor
		A disassembler
		A librarian
		A code optimizer

	The profiler uses the statistical sampling method to generate a trace
	of executing routines.

	The batch program has conditionals, switch, variables, relational
	operators, string functions, and file functions such as returning
	the modification date of a program.  You can use this to easily provide
	some capabilities of the Unix "make" program, as shown in a 12-line
	example that remakes all .o files that are out of date with their
	corresponding .c files.

I like this compiler more and more as Megamax continues to improve it.  It
is an excellent value at $180 (discount mail order).  It still could use a
symbolic debugger, but that just means there's room for further improvement.

Disclaimer:  I am not a friend or employee of anyone involved with Megamax.

--Gordon Hamachi