[comp.lang.modula2] Modula-2 for UNIX System V

K538911@CZHRZU1A.BITNET (Patrik Eschle) (07/08/87)

>Does anyone know of a Modula-2 compiler for UNIX System V, and specifically
>one that will work with an AT&T 3B2/300? --Roger Terrell

There exixsts one, called MODULA-2/68 for 68xxx processors. Systems
supported are (June 86, 1 year ago): Alto 3068 (Sys V), IRIS Workstations
(UniPlus), Sun (BSD 4.2), Tektronix 4400 Workstation (Uniflex), VAX Unix
and VAX VMS 4.2, Philips VME Systems (UniFive).

It costs min. $500. From what i saw from the users guide, the implementation
is not that good, they did not find a convincing solution for the
I/O modules - I decided on Oregon Pascal.

Sources: "Contact the Sales Departement at (415) 341-1768 or write to:
          Stan Osborne
          Djavaheri Bros.
          P.O. Box 4759
          697 Saturn Court
          Foster City, CA 94404-0759
          ITT Telex: 49 49 940"
---------------------------------------------------------------
 Patrik Eschle
 E-Mail    :  K538911@CZHRZU1A.BITNET
 Private   :  Kronwiesenstr. 82, CH-8051 Zuerich (Switzerland)
              Phone : 1-40 72 39
 Institute :  Physics Institute, University of Zuerich
              Schoenberggasse 9, CH-8001 Zuerich
              Phone : 1-257 29 44
---------------------------------------------------------------

dcw@doc.ic.ac.uk (Duncan C White) (07/13/87)

In article <8707081024.AA21949@cayuga.cs.rochester.edu> Patrik Eschle writes:

>>Does anyone know of a Modula-2 compiler for UNIX System V, and specifically
>>one that will work with an AT&T 3B2/300? --Roger Terrell
>
>There exixsts one, called MODULA-2/68 for 68xxx processors. Systems
>supported are (June 86, 1 year ago): Alto 3068 (Sys V), IRIS Workstations
>(UniPlus), Sun (BSD 4.2), Tektronix 4400 Workstation (Uniflex), VAX Unix
>and VAX VMS 4.2, Philips VME Systems (UniFive).
>
>It costs min. $500. From what i saw from the users guide, the implementation
>is not that good, they did not find a convincing solution for the
>I/O modules - I decided on Oregon Pascal.
>

We have recently this compiler for our Sun 3/50s.  [We bought it via
Real Time Associates, a British firm]  I think our licence set us back
2000 pounds [roughly]

The compiler still has some bugs, and doesn't interface to C terribly
well [the parameters are REVERSED !!].  However, RTA and the Dhajaheri
Brothers seem to respond positively to bug reports.... we started with
version 1.4, and are now on 1.6 !  As yet, it is only a Revision 2
compiler - no MIN and MAX [sob].

As to I/O modules... when AREN'T these a problem ?  Until someone gets their
finger out and defines a nice, easy-to-use, polymorphic, variable-no-parameters,
and, most importantly, STANDARD I/O system, I/O is a perpetual problem.
For what it's Wirth :-) InOut appears to be implemented adequately, although
without ReadAgain.

Bring back writeln [or printf] !  All is forgiven !

Overall, I would say I'm reasonably happy with the compiler... despite a
six hour debugging session trying to work out how passing strings to a C
module was [sometimes!] giving a segmentation fault in a SunTools routine !
I never did fix it... I just fudged it...

Obviously, I can't say what happens on other 68K targets..

	Duncan.

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dph@beta.UUCP (David P Huelsbeck) (07/15/87)

In article <473@ivax.doc.ic.ac.uk> you write:
>In article <8707081024.AA21949@cayuga.cs.rochester.edu> Patrik Eschle writes:
>
>>>Does anyone know of a Modula-2 compiler for UNIX System V, and specifically
>>>one that will work with an AT&T 3B2/300? --Roger Terrell
>>
>>There exixsts one, called MODULA-2/68 for 68xxx processors. Systems

[...]

>
>We have recently this compiler for our Sun 3/50s.  [We bought it via

[...]

>
>The compiler still has some bugs, and doesn't interface to C terribly
>well [the parameters are REVERSED !!].  

[...]

I spent some time using this compiler this spring.
It seemed like a very nice package with some good provisions
for setting up directory paths to be searched for modules 
not found in the current directory and some other nice features.
However to say that it "doesn't interface to C terribly well"
is probably being nice. Check the M2 representation of real numbers
against that for C. As I recall they're quite different. This means
that the real values returned from system calls must be twiddled to
be used by M2. The manual also gave a lot of information about the
"+g" option (or something like that) to allow symbolic debuggers
to be used. However in a small paragraph in the last two or three
pages they explain that dbx doesn't really support *all* of the
M2 data structures so the +g option has been turned off on all UNIX
releases. :-(


	David Huelsbeck
	dph@lanl.gov.arpa
	{ihnp4,cmcl2}!lanl!dph

harv@kansas-state.CSNET (Harvard Townsend) (07/15/87)

In article <8707081024.AA21949@cayuga.cs.rochester.edu> Patrik Eschle writes:
     
>>Does anyone know of a Modula-2 compiler for UNIX System V, and specifically
>>one that will work with an AT&T 3B2/300? --Roger Terrell
>
>There exixsts one, called MODULA-2/68 for 68xxx processors. Systems
>supported are (June 86, 1 year ago): Alto 3068 (Sys V), IRIS Workstations
>(UniPlus), Sun (BSD 4.2), Tektronix 4400 Workstation (Uniflex), VAX Unix
>and VAX VMS 4.2, Philips VME Systems (UniFive).
>
>It costs min. $500. From what i saw from the users guide, the implementation
>is not that good, they did not find a convincing solution for the
>I/O modules - I decided on Oregon Pascal.
>
Note that the 3B2/300 is not a MC680X0 machine.  It has AT&T's WE32000
series chip in it.  I just heard today of a public domain Modula-2
compiler for the AT&T 3B2/400 developed at Oxford U. in Great Britain.
I will be getting more details in the near future, and will post them
to this news group at that time.  If anyone else knows about its
availability, I am sure there are a number of people on the net who would 
like to hear about it, so please post the information.  By the way, it
shouldn't have any problems running on the 3B2/300 since the 300 and 400
are binary compatible.
______________________________________
Harvard Townsend, Systems Manager
Kansas State University, Dept. of Computer Science
Manhattan, KS 66506   (913)532-6350
CSNET:	harv@kansas-state -or- harv%kansas-state@relay.cs.net
BITNET: harv@ksuvax1.bitnet -or- harv%ksuvax1.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
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