kev@voder.UUCP (Kevin Hoskins) (01/25/89)
I would like to take advantage of the Net's wealth of experience with the following request. I want to begin writing programs for myself, to start with, for use on my XT clone. I am not sure which language to use. Therefore, I would like to know what the users of the following languages Microsoft's QuickBasic QuickC Macro Assembler Borland's Turbo Basic Turbo C Turbo Pascal Turbo Assembler A shareware product A86/D86 think concerning ease of code generation, programming environment, performance (which, I guess could include size and speed of compiled/assembled code), and any other items or features that you consider important. I know that C seems to be quite popular now, but why is this so. It all boils down to "why should I choose one language over another?". With respect to the three assemblers mentioned, again why would I choose one over the other? I will attempt to compile and post the responses that I receive from those who REPLY THROUGH EMAIL. You can post to the NET if you want, I am a regular reader. Also, if anyone could sight magazine reviews and articles or books that objectively compare C, Pascal, and Basic, these to would be most helpful. Thank you very much, Kevin Hoskins
mdfreed@ziebmef.uucp (Mark Freedman) (01/31/89)
(which language is best ........) Holy Religious Wars, Batman ............. I strongly suggest that you establish some selection criteria before asking that sort of question. Each langauge / implementation has its strong and weak points. Most of the langauges mentioned are sufficiently powerful for most uses. A starting point for these criteria would be 1) what application(s) do you intend to develop ??? A language suited to a large accounting package is not necessarily equally suitable for small utilities (I've developed word-wrap routines in COBOL and financial reports in C, but it certainly wasn't an appropriate use of my time in either case). 2) what is your background ?? Some people prefer the ultimate control / ultimate tedium of assembly, others prefer something more English-like (e.g. BASIC), yet others find C to be overly terse, yet others find PASCAL to be overly restrictive, etc. .... 3) what are your long-range goals, e.g. do you need to worry about portability to other systems, or will an 8088 / MSDOS specific language (assembler) or implementation (e.g. one of the enhanced BASICs or PASCALs) suffice. 4) What can you afford ??? Given that C does NOT include certain business-related functions (e.g. BCD arithmetic, data entry screen handling, keyed file handling), I would say that C appears to be more portable to other environments at this time. Due in part to its popularity, there are vast numbers of text books, third- party libraries, and magazine articles dedicated to C. If you aren't put off by its terseness, it isn't hard to work in (it IS relatively complex, due to the power of the language). As a purely personal recommendation, I'd suggest the Borland Turbo C Professional package. This doesn't produce the "best" code, but I've found the debugger to be very useful for learning about code generation and the] 8088 in general. The inclusion of TASM is an additional bonus, if you DO decide to delve into assembler programming. This specific recommendation is based on the assumption that you don't have a specific application or environment in mind which would be best served by another language or implementation.
rick@gtisqr.UUCP (Rick Groeneveld) (02/16/89)
MC88100 assembly language! :-)