krastes@nucleus.UUCP (David Krastes) (10/31/87)
I have a 130XE with 320K ram and I am interested in programing it but basic is not the language of my choice for any real programing what languages are there available? what public domain conpilers are out for this machine (not including basic compilers) I would be expecialy interested in ones that use the extra memory. If there are any good pascal compilers I would appreciate it if someone would mail me a copy Thank you
P7O@PSUVMA.BITNET (PATRICK) (11/06/87)
I have a Atari 800XL with 256K and I would also be interested in
a Pascal compiler. I've seen one for about $70,is that the only
one out there?
cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP (Christopher F. Chiesa) (11/08/87)
I recently purchased Kyan Software's Pascal compiler, and I must admit I'm a little disappointed. The documentation is fairly thorogh in terms of Pascal and actually writing programs, but the entire section on how to get the environment (Editor, Compiler, Assembler, Utilities) seems to refer to an earlier form of the system - the user interface is almost completely DIFFERENT from what the manual says. I was able to work it out because I have used an Atari (and other computers) for many years and knew roughly what SHOULD need to be done, but I can see a lot of novices having trouble with this system as-is. My other major complaint about Kyan Pascal is that nearly EVERYTHING on the system is in a separate file which MUST be present on the SAME disk as the program-to-be-compiled. This leaves me with about 80 sectors free to use for Pascal source, intermediate Assembly source, and final executable file. On top of that, many of the more useful functions, even minor ones such as "PLOT" and "DRAWTO" equivalents, must be 'included' into your source code from still more - guess what - "required" files. You with 256K RAM should be all right, though, because there's support for the XL/XE D8: Ramdisk device, leaving you with a little more elbow room than I've got with a single-drive, single-density system. Personally I'm thinking of sending it back. Chris Chiesa Senior, CS Ball State University, Muncie IN 47305