sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (03/04/89)
I just finished playing (working?) with Borland's Turbo C on my MSDOS
machine at work. It is really nice! It has a window like interface
with pull down menus, built in text editor, and it is FAST.
Why isn't there something like this for the Amiga? Talk about
bass ackwards.. Here we have a generic msdos machine running a program
with windows and pull down menus, and over here we have an Amiga,
with a built in window/menu interface and a command driven c compiler.
I wonder if it would be possible to use write a kind of 'shell' around
lattice or manx 'c' and an editor to make it work like turbo 'c'?
Not being much of a c programmer myself, it would doubtless be beyond
anything I could write. But I sure would like to see something like
Turbo on the Amiga. I mean, I usually struggle with Manx just trying
to get the durn options figured out, but with Turbo C it was easy and
even fun to compile a program. You edit, compile, correct and run your
program in a window that lets you scroll backwards and forward. You pull
down menus to pick compiler options, then tell it to go and bam! your
program is ready to run.
John
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--
John Sparks // Amiga | {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!sparks
\X/ UUCP | >> call D.I.S.K. @ 502/968-5401 thru 5406 <<
Beware of quantum ducks: Quark, Quark.dwight@sugar.hackercorp.com (Dwight Everhart) (03/08/89)
In article <406@corpane.UUCP>, sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes: > I just finished playing (working?) with Borland's Turbo C on my MSDOS > machine at work. It is really nice! It has a window like interface > with pull down menus, built in text editor, and it is FAST. > > Why isn't there something like this for the Amiga? Talk about > bass ackwards.. Here we have a generic msdos machine running a program > with windows and pull down menus, and over here we have an Amiga, > with a built in window/menu interface and a command driven c compiler. Benchmark Modula-2 was a Turbo-like environment. I can compile, link, and run my programs just by hitting function keys (from the built-in editor). Perhaps C will catch up, given enough time. B^) -- Dwight Everhart | "Time is an illusion. dwight@sugar.uu.net | Lunchtime doubly so." {uunet,texbell}!sugar!dwight | -- Ford Prefect
cjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) (03/08/89)
From article <406@corpane.UUCP>, by sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks): > Why isn't there something like <Turbo C> for the Amiga?... > I wonder if it would be possible to use write a kind of 'shell' around > lattice or manx 'c' and an editor to make it work like turbo 'c'? It wouldn't be hard to write a compiler "environment" for Lattice or Aztec C in MicroEmacs macro language, for instance. But you still wouldn't get the compile time speeds of Turbo-C. And microemacs macro language is one of the slowest interpreters I have ever seen (despite its silly syntax its A LOT better than no extension language though!) . In real program development environments, the "shell" you refer to is the job of the editor. Turbo-C's editor is actually pretty weak. The Amiga C compilers are close to good enough; it is a real editor that I am wishing I had. -- | Clint Jeffery, University of Arizona Department of Computer Science | cjeffery@arizona.edu -or- {noao allegra}!arizona!cjeffery --
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (03/08/89)
In article <406@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes: >I just finished playing (working?) with Borland's Turbo C on my MSDOS >machine at work. It is really nice! It has a window like interface >with pull down menus, built in text editor, and it is FAST. >Why isn't there something like this for the Amiga? Talk about You know, such a thing would be a snap to write for your favorite ARexx compatible editor, if only the compiler writers would add an ARexx port to their compilers. Take a look at AmigaTeX, and learn. -- Eric Kennedy ejkst@cisunx.UUCP
nsw@cord.UUCP (Neil Weinstock) (03/09/89)
In article <406@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP writes: >I just finished playing (working?) with Borland's Turbo C on my MSDOS >machine at work. It is really nice! It has a window like interface >with pull down menus, built in text editor, and it is FAST. > >Why isn't there something like this for the Amiga? Talk about >bass ackwards.. Here we have a generic msdos machine running a program >with windows and pull down menus, and over here we have an Amiga, >with a built in window/menu interface and a command driven c compiler. > >I wonder if it would be possible to use write a kind of 'shell' around >lattice or manx 'c' and an editor to make it work like turbo 'c'? [ ... ] I posted about this recently, but I'm pretty sure it got garbled on the way out, so here is some of it again. Apologies if you've seen this before. Spoke to the Manx folks at AmiExpo. Seems they're skipping 4.0 and 4.1 and jumping right to 5.0 (maybe they just wanted to have a number as high as Lattice, I don't know). They are projecting July availability, and will be sending out notification to all registered users around June. No word on upgrade pricing. It sounds like it will be worth the wait. Some highlights: * A "turbo" style compiler and environment. Everything integrated and mousy, plus ARexx ports on everything so you can customize. The turbo compiler will have compiler and assembler rolled into one, so it theoretically should be quick. * In addition, a standard multi-part compiler with a global optimizer, for when you want to produce production-quality code. * Souped up SDB which handles multitasking correctly (hooray!!). * New make utilities. VMAKE (?) for advanced users and a "Project Manager" for those who prefer point and click. * Fully certified ANSI compatible. They said that the compiler is virtually done, and that they're working on the environment stuff. The compiler wars are escalating. Oh yeah, the new package is called the "Aztec C Express", so you too can become an ACE programmer. Ooey. /.- -- .. --. .- .-. ..- .-.. . ... .- -- .. --. .- .-. ..- .-.. . ...\ / Neil Weinstock | att!cord!nsw | "One man's garbage is another \ \ AT&T Bell Labs | nsw@cord.att.com | man's prune danish." - Harv Laser / \.- -- .. --. .- .-. ..- .-.. . ... .- -- .. --. .- .-. ..- .-.. . .../
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (03/09/89)
In article <9599@megaron.arizona.edu> cjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) writes: >From article <406@corpane.UUCP>, by sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks): >> Why isn't there something like <Turbo C> for the Amiga?... >It wouldn't be hard to write a compiler "environment" for Lattice or Aztec C in >MicroEmacs macro language, for instance. But you still wouldn't get the >compile time speeds of Turbo-C. And microemacs macro language is one of the >slowest interpreters I have ever seen (despite its silly syntax its A LOT >better than no extension language though!) . In real program development >environments, the "shell" you refer to is the job of the editor. Turbo-C's >editor is actually pretty weak. The Amiga C compilers are close to good >enough; it is a real editor that I am wishing I had. Uedit is more than capable of doing this. There have been several environments written to connect Uedit to various compilers, but none of them have been very good, or very complete. If I ever start programming seriously (like I keep promising myself <sigh>) I will definitely work on this situation. Like I said in a previous posting, it would help a *lot* if the compiler spoke ARexx. And had a sort of resident, "looping" mode, like AmigaTeX. That would address the edit-compile-link time considerably. Then the environment could be adapted to TxEd, CED, Uedit, etc. A decent environment could still be written in Uedit's internal languange, though. -- Eric Kennedy ejkst@cisunx.UUCP
bradch@microsoft.UUCP (Bradford Christian ms1) (03/11/89)
John Sparks (sparks@corpane.UUCP writes:
[lots of stuff about Turbo C and why don't we have something like it]
: I wonder if it would be possible to use write a kind of 'shell' around
: lattice or manx 'c' and an editor to make it work like turbo 'c'?
I did something like this. I hacked up an old version of MicroEMACS with
a "make" command. Running this command (Ctrl-X, Ctrl-E) would run make in
the background with the output redirected to a buffer in the editor. This
does not use a temporary file, so the output appears in any windows that
are looking at that buffer as the make program runs. Another command,
"goto next error" (Ctrl-X, Ctrl-N) will find errors in that buffer and
position the cursor where the compiler thinks the error is. (I use Manx,
so I use the little caret (^) that it prints pointing to the error to find
out what column to place the cursor.)
This is not quite Turbo-C (or QuickC :-), but it works very well. Besides,
you can fix your syntax errors while the rest of you program is being made!
BTW, the way I get around using a temporary file really shows off the
power of the Amiga. I simply created a device (not a separate driver,
the editor contains it) called BE: (which happens to be the name of
the editor). The BE: device can be used just like any other AmigaDOS
device and works with Open(), Close(), Read(), and Write(). Any editing
buffer can be connected to BE: by specifying the name of the buffer when
opening the "file" as in "BE:MakeOutput".
What I have now works great for getting the output of a program into a
buffer. I am currently working on a more general purpose "device buffer"
system that makes the editing buffers look like a directory (you'll be
able to use "Dir BE:" in a shell to get a list of buffers) and supports
interactive connections to buffers. If you've ever seen Epsilon on a
DOS machine, you know how neat that can be. If you haven't seen it, it
lets you run a DOS shell concurently in a window. All of the editing
features are, of course, available to edit your DOS commands and all of
your session is saved in the buffer for reviewing, etc.
But anyway, before this turns into too much of an RSN posting, I will
make the executable of my editor available to the net if anyone wants
to check it out. Please send me e-mail if you'ld like a copy. If I
get enough responces, I'll just send it in for comp.binaries.amiga.
Otherwise, I'll just mail it around. It may take a week or so to get
documentation ready, but the code works (I've been using it for a few
weeks). I would make the source code available too, but I write code
that few (outside of Microsoft) could read. Maybe later.
BradCh
DISCLAIMER: My editor, my amiga, and this posting have nothing to do
with Microsoft. (Although, I wish I could use the first two in my
work here!)
Epsilon is (possibly) a trademark of Lugaru Software Ltd.