jayf@islenet.UUCP (Jay Fields) (09/09/85)
More on Hippo~C
by J Fields
C compiler adds are proliferating like proverbial
rabbits. I notice them more and more as I desperately
search the last few pages of my Mac publications hoping
for a few last gems of Mac-information before reaching
the final back-cover-buy-me add. While I'm no expert,
and while you may have already read an earlier review of
Hippo~C written by me, let me say that this one is good
enough to do-it again. In a word, Hippo~C is terrific.
Why?
Because they really understand that many of us who buy
their product are biting off more than we (I?) can chew.
They have an understanding of this that some of our
grandmothers would respect.
"All of a sudden I felt as if I was floating in mid-air.
I asked, 'Where is reality?' But I received only only
the assurance that 'up' was an unknown quantity. Just as
I realized I was falling Q not floating or even
flying Q but falling (There I was at terminal velociy,
just feet above the ground, and no parachute).... Just
at that moment I felt the safety net press into my back
gathering me to throw me back up from whence I'ld come."
When I was without brackets in my structures, they had
conformed to Kernighan & Ritchie and research therein
delivered me. When I insisted on using
'sizeof(array)/sizeof(array[element])' as a run-time
corner-cutter to avoid incrementing a variable to keep
track of array[]'s size. They did not leave me feeling
entirely a fool for not believing their guru's reply that
it was a compile-time instruction that could not possibly
do what I wanted it to do Q although I do, sometimes, get
a bit belligerent when people start repeating
themselves....
Most importantly, they helped me by providing a
Level-One, and telling me I could upgrade to Level-Two
later. Level-One's debugging features brought me gently
to rest on firm ground more than once. Through the
course on C Programming, they aided and abetted my cause
possibly adding tens of points to my final score.
Now that I have upgraded to Level-Two I can hurl myself
at the ground and no longer miss, if I decide to be so
foolish. Level two is faster, it supports floating point
numbers after a fashion, and it will even generate stand-
alone, clickable Mac programs.
Additionally, I've come to learn, know, and even enjoy
Hippo's HOS, a Unix like operating systems. When I tried
to re-direct screen output to a file it worked Q marvelously.
Now I can start talking like I know what all that Unix stuff
means!