jss@sjuvax.UUCP (J. Shapiro) (01/31/85)
[Aren't you hungry] A number of people have asked about C compilers for the Mac. While I don't know about a representative number, perhaps sharing what I do know will help. If you have access to a VAX running UNIX, SumMacs (sp?) is probably the fastest thing going. The theory runs that you do your coding on the VAX (tr. fast) and then download. The catch is that SumMacs is rather big, and if you are tight on disk space or a student with a quota limit this is a problem. Personally, I use the Aztec C by Manx Software, Inc. I have one of the early versions - serial number < 2500 - of the full development system ($499). At that time it came on two disks. Now that I have reminded them that they are supposed to be supporting me, they say the three disk (current) version will be shipped today. Other than that support problem, I have found the system quite good. With a few exceptions which wil be fixed (they claim) on the next upgrade, everything is supported. Among the things missing on my version are support for the sound driver and for the Printer Driver. It is possible these have been added to the three disk system - when I find out I will let you know. Aztec C provides a C compiler, a 68K assembler, and linker. The development system generates stand alone code, which the others do not. There are three items available - basic, utilities, and development system. As of the January '85 byte the prices were: AZTEC C68K-P (personal software development system) - $199 AZTEC C68K Tools (make, grep, diff, Z editor) - $249 AZTEC C68K-C (commercial software development system) $499 The last includes the contents of the first two. Manx provides a Unix like shell to work in, which can be slow swapping code segments but is otherwise ok. The only difference between the personal+utilities and the commercial system is that the commercial system provides startup functions you can link into your code to render it standalone. Thus far I have had two complaints: 1. At some points which I do not understand, the C compiler says: "Out of memory." People have reported to me that the same program will also generate this error on a 512K mac which seems odd, but I am assured that this bug has been repaired in the current edition. 2. Some errors which should be caught by the syntax pass of the compiler aren't, leaving the catch to be made by the assembler. Though the assembler code can be generated with the C source lines as comments, it strikes me that this is dubious practice, as sometime that code may not bomb. On the other hand, the fear has not yet come to pass. Code seems to be reasonably tight, and the compiler (at least my version) can generate desk accesories and drivers. If you get it, I recommend the commercial development system. Any software you write which does not use their sample code is free of royalties - basically, you are safe. In particulat I asked them about #include header files, and they said they were no problem royaltywise - the trap numbers are publicly known. Now, if only I could afford Inside Mac having purchased this compiler I could do some real software... Jon Shapiro Haverford College ..!allegra!sjuvax!jss