pre2306@cuphub.cup.edu (03/23/90)
I've been reading ACM's communication mag and usually there is an ad for TOPSPEED C. They compare their compiler to all other name brands. The question I have is, "If they are so worthy of such a comparison, why haven't I seen a reference to them on the net?" I'm thinking of tossing some hard earned mony into TOPSPEED C. Does anyone out there know some of the pros & cons for the compiler of which I speak? Thanks in advance! J. E. Preston Jr.
mccarthy@well.sf.ca.us (Patrick McCarthy) (03/25/90)
In article <5383@cuphub.cup.edu> pre2306@cuphub.cup.edu writes: > > I've been reading ACM's communication mag and usually there is >an ad for TOPSPEED C. They compare their compiler to all other name brands. >The question I have is, "If they are so worthy of such a comparison, why >haven't I seen a reference to them on the net?" > I'm thinking of tossing some hard earned mony into TOPSPEED C. >Does anyone out there know some of the pros & cons for the compiler of >which I speak? I've been a heavy user of both Microsoft C since version 4.0 and Turbo C since version 1.0 (yuk!). At the Software Developer's Conference 1990, I won a free copy of Topspeed C and decided to give it a whirl. Basically, it seems to be a pretty solid product, with decent speed and decent code generation, BUT: - It's very difficult to work OUTSIDE of their integrated development environment. It's also difficult NOT to use their "smart" make. these two things drive me nuts. I LIKE my current editor. I LIKE the version of make I have (I have a lot of time invested in my current makefiles, and TopSpeed's make does not offer enough advantages to make me spend the time and effort to convert everything). - Even though they're mostly compatible with the Big Two, my current third-party libraries don't work with it. Currently, TopSpeed doesn't have enough market share to make it worthwile for most third party vendors to spend time & money converting to TopSpeed. - Although the compiler seems good, it's difficult to say whether it's all that much better than Turbo C (Niels Jensen, head of JPI, was instrumental in the development of the original Turbo C). The one really slick feature of the TopSpeed family is that the integrated environment knows about all their different compilers, which makes multi language debvelopment a snap. Then again, when was the last time you absolutely HAD to mix C, Modula-2, and Pascal (available "this sumnmer") in a single program. In short, if you've been using Microsoft C, you'll be impressed by the speed. If you've been using Turbo C, you probably won't see a speed difference. If you've never used either, you'll think it's a good product (if you like their environment). Beware the third party library situation, though... Patrick McCarthy mccarthy@well.uucp