imp@Solbourne.COM (Warner Losh) (06/04/90)
Here are a few comments about getting TC++ to work on the rainbow. I hope that it is of use to people considering this product. First off, you almost need code blue to install Tubro C++. The install program is written for the PC and uses direct screen writes. I couldn't install the program w/o running INSTALL under code blue. You also need about 4.1Meg free on your disk to install even the most minimal configurations of TC++. It takes up about 3.5Meg once you are done with the install. Under Code Blue the install took about 30-45 mintues. You can just extract the .EXE files from the .zips that come with the distribution, but it appears that you have to give it the name of where the include files live. I didn't do this extensively, so there may be some way w/o specifying on the command line, but I didn't see anything immediately obvious. TCC.EXE and CPP.EXE need to be patched (or have my TSR running) in order to have a chance of working on the Rainbow. I don't plan on producing patches if I can be sure the TSR I wrote is good. See separate article for more details. The use of INT 18 seems to be the only problem with these programs. They are reasonably fast, but not as fast as a Sun4 :-). TC.EXE can be run under Code Blue if you have enough memory for the video mapping to work right. TC is the new IDE (Integrated Development Environment). I found it kinda slow and a little awkward to use under CB. I feel that most of the slowness is Code Blue's copying the screen memory onto the screen every so often. All the other programs that I tired (TLIB, TLINK, GREP) work out of the box w/ no problems. TLINK will link object files created with MASM 1.27 (the one that came with my rainbow) and MASM 5.1. I'd recommend it to anybody that want/needs a 'C' compiler that also wants to play with C++. I haven't beaten on the C++ parts of the compiler yet, but from the documentation, it looks good. Finally, I'd like to thank George Theal for his help in pointing me at patches, info, etc for older Turbo C compilers. I have no affiliation with Borland other than a satisfied user. -- Warner Losh imp@Solbounre.COM