ix181@sdcc6.ucsd.EDU (J. ) (04/17/87)
<<< Line eater food >>> Sorry I couldn't come up with a funny line for above . . . Hello folks. I just got my update of Mark Williams' C (v2.0) in the mail today. I have been playing with it for the last 7 or 8 hours. It is marvelous! Some first impressions: 1) The compile/edit/compile cycle is wonderful! I know this is already in Megamax, but it is really nice to have it. It makes working much faster and nicer. 2) The shell (MSH) is *vastly* improved. I didn't use the last version's shell because it wasn't as good as Micro C-Shell, but this one will retire the C-Shell. A short list of features/improvements: alias'ing(!!!)(I am lazy), IF and WHILE loops w/ conditional statements, improved history command, improved and more controllable re-direction, POSTFILE execution, etc. 3) There is a RAMDISK utility that *looks* (mine was thrashed when it came, I am calling tomorrow to get a new disk) nice. You can warm boot from it! It can also be made to come up (from within an AUTO folder) with your files already in it! 4) --** THE DOCUMENTATION **-- is unspeakably wonderful. All of AES/VDI is documented in the great lexicon style of the last version. The "ghost" routines (the scrap library, the shell library) that have been missing from everything I've seen are in here! So is the correct Pexec() call. What more can I say? Some other random notes: I just finished recompiling my own version of Micro Emacs (the sources come with the compiler) on my system. "So what" you ask? I have only a 1040ST with ONE double sided disk drive. I run a 512K RAM disk, and compiling the 150K+ source files for uEmacs was a snap. If anyone else needs to run a small edition of MWC, drop me a line and I'll send you my configurations. The support at the Mark Williams' company is great. I have called many times on their toll free number with problems, and always gotten fast, courteous service. My update was out within 24 hours after they had received my check ($55 US). The people are nice. Well, I guess you can see that I like MWC a lot. Well, to be fair, there are still a few nagging things that I have the gall to kvetch about: no inline 68000 asm coding, and no resource constructor set. The first doesn't bug me too much, I hate assembly. The second would be very nice. Maybe next update? For now I use the Kuma Resource program, which is fine. So, in conclusion, I can't see why anyone would want to write C code using any other system. MWC is now almost as fast as (if not as fast as) Megamax, has a great environment, has wonderful documentation, and wonderful support. By spending $150 for the compiler, and $50 for the Kuma Resource Editor, it's my opinion that you get all that the Developer's kit gives, and more for $100 less. Enough said. John Ogawa ps> it's ANSI C compatible (with the draft) ...ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc13!ps136sag <or> ps136sag@sdcc13.ucsd.edu PLEASE SEND MAIL TO ADDRESS ABOVE!!! This account is going away on sunday the 19th. Disclaimer: I am in no way connected to either the Mark Williams' Company or Kuma other than being a satisfied customer. Also, my opinions in no way reflect those of the University of California, nor do theirs reflect mine.
jdn@homxc.UUCP (J.NAGY) (04/21/87)
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Like John Ogawa, I just got my MWC v2.0 update and I
agree with most of his glowing remarks. I also got
my compiler within 2 or 3 days of sending them a check.
The ram disk has a very sexy gem interface which makes
it easy to configure and use. Be warned, however, that
it only works with ROMS dated November 1985 or later. I
have been unable to load the mwc ramdisk and I suspect
that this is my problem. In the meantime, I continue
to use the Bob Locanto non-volatile RAM disk and ram disk
loader, which has worked marvelously for me for the past
year. Considering that such a great ram disk is available
in the public domain, I don't consider the addition of a
ramdisk in the mwc package a tremendous selling point.
Jonathan Nagy
{ihnp4|harvard|allegra}!homxc!jdn