GELINASJ@CMR001.BITNET (01/12/90)
The rumors about the apollo C compiler refusing good C code are
not founded in the case of the TeX software (Standard Unix distribution).
1. I do not know C but could compile TeX and Metafont on SR9.7 last april.
The few problems were trivial (no hacking necessary) and had to do
with pathnames and env. variables (i did not know Unix either).
2. Last september, we decided to go to SR10.1 but I did not have the time
to recompile everything. I put the whole TeX directory on a tape and
copied it back as is on the SR10.1 system. And it worked! Including
the previewer from Leonard Zubkhoff (i had to patch its fonts).
3. In december, i recompiled for SR10.1 and only a few changes were
necessary ( CFLAGS= -w -A nansi -A cpu,3000 ). And i did succed
in modifying the SUN routines to display Metafont characters as
they are built, using gpr. (I never tire of looking at this -:).
In conclusion, this shows that good Unix software, written by top people,
will work on the apollos. But it will not use the bit mapped display or
any of the features that make an apollo network stand above the others.
You must work quite a bit more to get a better performance here.
Oh, i almost forgot: there is some code designed specially
for some machines in the TeX software. Seems that these compilers
will not accept these standard C files without it. I do not
remember the names, but i knew some of the companies in question.
Please keep in mind that i do not know what i am talking about above.
J. GELINAS