YZKCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Yaakov Kayman) (08/01/88)
In the August issue of Computer Shopper magazine (p. 271),
I saw an ad for Power C for about $50. This price includes the compiler,
a debugger, a C library, source code for the library, and a manual. This
seems like an excellent price to me! The product is produced by Mix
Software. Are they fairly well-established? Are they good with technical
support, product updates, etc.?
The execution times quoted in the ad for various benchmark tests
make it out to be a better performer than QuickC by Microsoft. Is this
true? Is it only a half-truth?
The ad also claimed that Power C had more features than Borland's
Turbo C? Is this true? Is it meaningful?
Does anyone have good/bad EXPERIENCE using Power C? Does this seem
"too good to be true" or "too true to be good"?
The review in Computer Shopper looks like it could have been
supplied by Mix Software's marketing people!! I doubt that the product
is "the greatest thing since sliced bread" (no, that WASN'T in the
review! :-) ). The review did, however, make it sound REALLY good.
Would anyone who has seen the review care to comment on its objectivity?
Thanks in advance.
YK
--------
Yaakov Kayman (212) 903-3666 City University of New York
BITNET: YZKCU@CUNYVM "Lucky is the shepherd, and lucky the flock
Internet: YZKCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU about whom the wolves complain."hollen@tsunami.megatek.uucp (Dion Hollenbeck) (08/04/88)
From article <1450YZKCU@CUNYVM>, by YZKCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Yaakov Kayman): > > In the August issue of Computer Shopper magazine (p. 271), > I saw an ad for Power C for about $50. This price includes the compiler, > a debugger, a C library, source code for the library, and a manual. This > seems like an excellent price to me! [...stuff deleted...] > Does anyone have good/bad EXPERIENCE using Power C? Does this seem > "too good to be true" or "too true to be good"? >[...stuff deleted...] I have had experience with MIX C which was its predecessor by the same company. I have replied with rave answers about it several times to the net already, so I will be brief. The company is very good with support. The compiler, debugger, editor and assembly interface was all they said it was (the debugger is good enough to blow the doors off CODEVIEW which is mighty fine product). When I bought it for $79.95 I felt that the reference manuals alone were worth the price. The only drawbacks were only one memory model(tiny) and compliation to P-code, not object. The new POWER C addresses all the previous limitations of MIX C and if their previous track record is anything to go on, it is worth it at twice the price or more. (Just for the record, I program professionally using Lattice and Microsoft C, so I cna make the comparison). Dion Hollenbeck (619) 455-5590 x2814 Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121 seismo!s3sun!megatek!hollen ames!scubed/
pt@geovision.uucp (Paul Tomblin) (08/19/88)
I bought Power C Version 1.0 without the debugger and here are my general impressions: 1 - The compiler is probably written to recognize Sieve programs, because my personal experience is as follows: Machine: Tandy 1200HD, 640K, 128K disk cache Program: ffinput - One of mine Compiler Compile/Link Time EXE Size Run Time Power C 1:53 19264 bytes 0:24 Turbo v1.0 0:46 22216 0:04 Program: CB31 - PD C Beautifier Power C 1:45 18928 1:20 Turbo 0:41 12638 1:29 Not very scientific, but what do you want? 2 - The manual is beautiful. It is a softbound book a little larger than Waite's C Primer Plus. It has a HUGE C tutorial and a good reference section. 3 - The library is very complete. They claim a superset of Borland and MicroSoft! 4 - Tech support is pretty good. I wrote a letter with 14 points, (See, I like point form :-)), some questions, some bugs, and they sent a letter answering all the questions, and a new release fixing the bugs. Sorry I didn't have time to run the benchmarks with the new release. 5 - General Impressions: Not as much fun as Turbo, but a great C tutorial and manual with a free compiler thrown in. So, what do you think of my first posting? ----- Paul Tomblin "OS/2 should not be confused with a REAL operating system, like UNIX"