nomad@verdix.com (Lee Damon) (05/18/89)
As no new responces have come in in quite some time, I guess this is
all I'm going to hear. Summarized below are the answers I got to my
p[osting on "what are the available C++'s, and what do you think of them?"
nomad
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From: Michael Tiemann <uunet!RELAY.CS.NET!tiemann%yahi.stanford.edu@verdix.com>
GNU C++ is freely available from prep.ai.mit.edu, just like GNU Emacs.
I am making it AT&T 2.0 compatible, and hope to release a version with
support for multiple inheritance before AT&T does.
GNU C++ is a native code compiler, not a translator. It runs on most
of the machines running GNU CC. [...]
For a review of an old version of GNU C++ vs the world, see
November 1988 Unix World.
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From: uunet!ucsd.edu!telesoft!dar@verdix.com (David Reisner)
[...] looking at C++ implementations with
an eye towards porting to new platforms/targets. [...] and including
library support, Glockenspeil may come in first, AT&T second, and GNU a
distant third (since it is a compiler, not a translator, porting cost
is too great for new processors).
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From: Larry Mellon <uunet!cpsc.UCalgary.CA!jsimellon@verdix.com>
We are using the AT&T C++ compiler, with several modifactions.
- ported to the sun3 (OS3.5 and 4.0)
- the supplied tasking package didn't, so we wrote a new one
- minor changes to avoid naming conflicts with software libraries
- restructured brain-dead makefiles and directories to support
versions for multiple hardware and OS bases.
- minor changes to CC for speed reasons
- implemented a patch program to replace unbelievably slow 'munch'.
- and of course a bug fix or two
Drawbacks:
- spits out UGLY c code. We found several compilers that would
not touch cfront's normal output. This is not a problem unless
you plan on porting to several different compilers.
- standard version is painfully slow! a sun3/60 (8meg, unloaded)
takes 3.5 minutes to link our libraries into a small user program.
(We have a very large system...) However, a week's hacking on
C++ and bit of care cut this down to 1.2 minutes.
- NO SOURCE LEVEL DEBUGGER!! If you've got a good memory and are
an exellent typist, you can brave dbx and debug the C ouput of C++.
Not recommended for the weak.
Advantages:
- cfront compiles to C, not assembler, thus it is portable to
differing machine bases. Some work required here.
- few bugs.
Available from AT&T, [...] Basically, an ok version of C++.
We've tried the Oregon C++ compiler; nobody here was very impressed with
it; their source-level debugger was non-useful and they compile directly
to assembler, thus you are stuck with whatever machines they port to.
It did, however, manage to compile and run 30,000 lines of C++ with less
than a week's porting efforts...
Zortech has a version, I believe it is for the IBM PC family only.
I believe Microsoft has a version as well, but I can't confirm that
without trolling thru mega-stacks of paper.
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============= Lee Damon \
work: verdix!nomad or nomad@verdix.com \
play: {agora,tessi,verdix}!castle!nomad or nomad@castle.uucp / \
"God" created man in its image, and man being ever humble returned the favor.