wet@lcuxlm.UUCP (04/08/87)
Thanks to everyone who responded to my C compiler query.
For me it was a toss-up between MicroSoft C and the new Borland compiler.
I went with MicroSoft, mainly because Borland's isn't available yet and
because of the good things I've heard about the MicroSoft debugger.
Here are the responses:
Buddy Taylor
lcuxlk!wet
LC 2W-D07
(201) 580-5592
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Personally I think MSC 4.0 blows away Lattice and all the other competitors
for Serious Work. But if you're just tinkering with small programs, I
understand many of the cheaper compilers (Mix, Datalight, etc) are fine.
The MSC compiler is as good as anyone's, BUT IT COMES WITH CODEVIEW! I would
not consider debugging C ever again without CodeView!
Just a satisfied MSC customer...
-Colin Kelley ..{cbmvax,pyrnj,bpa}!vu-vlsi!colin
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Buddy;
I'm also looking to by a C compiler for my 6300. I've been
researching this for a while and this is what I've come up with.
1. Microsoft C w/Codeview (4.0) seems to be (far and away)
the most highly recommended by both magazine test reports
and the net. Only drawback - price.
After that it gets tricky. I'm getting mine for my 6300 at home
and paying for it out of MY pocket. Bye Bye MS C. Almost $300.
Turbo C might be worth waiting for, also it is rumored that
Microsoft has Quick C in beta. Supposed to be the same price.
There is a third $100 C compiler called Datalight C. It is
available now, and is highly recommended on the net. What I am going
to do is wait for Turbo C and Quick C to come on the market and I'm
sure that when they do at least 2 or 3 computer mags will test them
against each other and Datalight. If this doesn't happen by summer
I'll just buy Datalight, unless I hear great things about Turbo
soon. If Quick C is a junior version of MS C v4 (compatible but limited)
I think I'll go with that for compatibility.
As you can see, I can't really tell you what to do at this point.
If money doesn't matter, MS C is the clear choice as far as I can
tell. Otherwise, you'll have to decide among the other 3 - only 1
of which is available now. I hope this helped more than it confused.
If you buy soon, and make what turns out to be either a very good or
very bad choice, please let me know.
Good Luck,
Bill Heinbach
AT&T Technical Support
Piscataway, N.J.
201-457-6481
This is not a job related letter, and should not be construed
as..... you know. We are not allowed to post from this site, but I
can still mail.
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According to the information I received from the people
on the order desk at Programmers Connection, Turbo C will NOT be
available until at least JUNE. Depending on your budget, you
might consider the Datalight Developer Kit or Optimizer complier.
Following is sort of a review of this compiler and comparison
with Microsoft C. NOTE: It is by no means a very complete or
exhaustive test, just my playing around over a weekend as I
installed the DLC on my PC.
==============================================================
At the time I ordered my Datalight C Compiler from
Programmers Connection the story was that Turbo C would not
be available until about June. I haven't checked lately to
see if it is any different. Did you happen to see/read the
article in comp.sys.ibm.pc titled "Turbo C - experience with
an alpha copy"? Some good comments that make it seem like
Turbo C will be hard to beat if and when it ever comes out!
I had an opportunity to try out my Datalight C compiler
(herein DLC) this past weekend so here are some of my 'limited
experience' comments. I had two programs for my test, areacode.c
and the Unix source paste.c. I also had a copy of Microsoft C, 4.0
(herein MSC) for compile speed comparison. I ran both compilers
in floppy configuration and the DLC in hard-disk configuration once
I installed it.
Both packages compiled areacode without any problems or
errors. DLC was quicker, it went to link immediately after the
compiler passes (I believe it used a bat file), and did not pester
me with a lot of questions about what this, that and everyother
filename were. MSC required me to change disks from compiler to
linker and then enter a separate command to start linking and also
had lots of questions about filenames etc. (I borrowed this copy
so I may not have had an optimum setup).
The results with paste.c were quite different. DLC
came up with three errors in the code which was taken directly
from Unix and unmodified. Microsoft took the same code and compiled
it without error or warning. As I didn't want to spend a lot of
time at it, I did not attempt to resolve the errors as reported by
DLC so I can't say if it was successful later.
After I installed DLC on my hard-disk I compiled areacode
a second time and saw a dramatic reduction in compile time. Can't
say what MSC would do similarly because I don't own it and didn't
want to go through the bother.
I would like to get my hands on Turbo C and run it against
DLC for comparison. The alpha copy experience article sure leads
me to believe that DLC and Turbo C will run neck and neck speed-
wise. I would be more interested in seeing what kind of libraries
Turbo C has and whether it can handle most code unmodified. For
that I'l have to wait, I guess.
=================================================================
Hope you find this useful.
Dave Beyerl
ihlpl!db21
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I've been using Microsoft C with a fair amount of success. It implements a
lot of the System V library routines. Also, Guidelines C++ will work with it.
Tony Hansen
ihnp4!pegasus!hansen
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Hi there -
I just read your C compiler help request -
I had posted a similar one a few weeks ago and got some
responses. I'm forwarding them to you because I think
they'll be of interest. I've never used the Borland
compiler, but they claim the following benchmark
in their print ads:
Turbo C MS-C Lattice
compile time 3.89 16.37 13.90
compile/link 9.94 29.06 27.79
execution 5.77 9.51 13.79
obj code size 274 297 301
price $99 $450 $500
They ran the benchmark on a 6MHz AT. But can you believe
everything you read?
Following are the responses I rec'd. Hope this helps.
John Connolly
whuts!4611con
Greetings -
To all requested copies of the responses to my 6300
compiler query, here they are (most of them, anyway).
In addition to the following, There were two others
that I inadvertently deleted from my mbox. However,
they both recommended the Microsoft C compiler. One
fellow also suggested the Borland Turbo C compiler,
although he hadn't used it. He seemed to be impressed with
other Borland products (i.e., Sidekick) and at $99 it does
"seem" like a good deal. There is a full page ad for it
in the April 87 issue of Byte magazine (inside front cover).
Also, Ken Becker in Holmdel suggested getting the mouse
for the 6300 because there are some Microsoft debugging tools
that work very well with it.
I'll pass along any other recommendations as they come in.
Hope this helps you.
>From shqer Fri Mar 27 10:04 EST 1987
>From shqer Fri Mar 27 10:04 EST 1987 forwarded by shqer
>From bedo Fri Mar 27 10:02 EST 1987 remote from houxm
To: whuts!4611con
Subject: Re: I forgot to mention...
References: <1654@whuts.UUCP>
Hello,
I'm responding to your request for information about C compilers for the
PC6300. I've used the Lattice C compiler and it has served me fairly well.
It comes pretty close to the K & R standard C and the differences are stated
in the manual. It comes with a fairly large set of library functions, some of
which are supposedly "UNIX compatible" (I have not used these functions). Of
the twenty or so library functions that I did use in my code I found two with
bugs. I was able to get around these bugs, however.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
A. Bedonian
houxm!bedo
x4154
=========================================
Sir:
Hi there! You must be referring to me. Quoting from the memo,
dated January 29, 1987, from Linda Scherzer, WH 45263 x3095, we have:
Dear Customer:
The Whippany Product Center has now added Software Sales to their
list of services provided to our users. Purchasing is referring
all orders that they receive to us for processing. Your Document
Account Number (DAN) will be used for charging. If you did not have
a Document Account Number, one has been opened for you and may
be used in the future for purchasing either documentation or software.
Please note the DAN which is on the pink form returned with your software.
If you wish to order more software please call Linda Scherzer on 386-3095.
If this number is busy you may call 386-(x6358, x2472, x4777, x6263).
If you want to order documentation please call 386-6000
WH-45263-LWS-lws Linda Scherzer
------
These people will also send you a list of approximately 200 software
titles of stuff that they sell. So far, I've gotten Microsoft Windows,
Microsoft C, and Fansi-Console from these folks. You order it, and it
shows up at your doorstep approximately two to three days later.
Good Luck!
Ken Becker hotlv!kab