des7f@ra.cs.Virginia.EDU (David Sappington) (05/05/90)
I have recently become involved in trying to port some educational software from MS-DOS to the Apple IIgs and (potentially) the IIe. I'm most comfortable in the Mac environment though I've done a little work with MS-DOS machines. Unfortunately, only within the last few weeks have I had investigated the IIe and IIgs. Needless to say I have a couple of questions: 1) Are most IIgs's used like IIe's? Does most software being run on the IIgs also run on the IIe or do most people with gs's run Mac like applications that use the ToolBox? Basically, should we write for the ToolBox or code for the least common denominator (IIe)? 2) What C-compilers are available for the IIgs and IIe? I currently have the MPW IIGS Cross Development package which I will likely use if we decide to code for the IIgs's ToolBox (which would mean nearly a complete rewrite!). I'm interested in learning about other C-compilers with good screen handling characteristics -- especially those whose code runs on a IIgs and a IIe. The original program made lots of direct writes to the PC's video RAM to achieve satisfactory character animation performance. I'm not looking forward to stuffing characters into the II's incredibly contorted 80-column memory map but it may come to that. Any help would be much appreciated. Dave Sappington des7f@virginia.edu Institute for Parallel Computation des7f@virginia.bitnet University of Virginia
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) (05/08/90)
In article <1312@ra.cs.Virginia.EDU> des7f@ra.cs.Virginia.EDU (David Sappington) writes: >1) Are most IIgs's used like IIe's? Does most software being run >on the IIgs also run on the IIe or do most people with gs's run Mac >like applications that use the ToolBox? Basically, should we write >for the ToolBox or code for the least common denominator (IIe)? IIGSes are normally used in the 16-bit GS/OS Desktop environment, switching to 8-bit ProDOS-8 //e-compatible mode only for applications developed specifically for the 8-bit environment. If there is no particular advantage to your application in using the desktop/mouse- oriented bitmap graphics environment, then developing for the 8-bit world will enlarge your target audience. Commercial software for the IIGS market, however, better be designed for use under GS/OS, using hard disk even, if it's going to appeal to the dedicated IIGS user. >2) What C-compilers are available for the IIgs and IIe? IIGS: APW C (available only from APDA, now run by Apple) ORCA/C (available from ByteWorks, in some software stores) 8-bit: Aztec C (from Manx Software Systems) Hyper C, not recommended Actually, I don't recommend developing C applications for the 8-bit Apple line unless your development system has a hard disk and a CPU accelerator. >I'm interested in learning about other C-compilers with good screen >handling characteristics ... C compiler's don't handle the screen, run-time libraries do. Aztec C includes some basic character display support functions, along the lines of UNIX "curses" but not as complete, while both APW and ORCA support the IIGS toolbox, which includes simple text tools as well as more elaborate bitmap windowing-oriented tools. >The original program made lots of direct writes to the PC's video >RAM to achieve satisfactory character animation performance. I'm >not looking forward to stuffing characters into the II's incredibly >contorted 80-column memory map but it may come to that. It isn't hard to address the Apple II text screen locations directly. However, what in the world is "character animation"? Wouldn't it be nicer to leave the world of ASCII CRT oriented applications and enter thr desktop bitmap graphics world?
bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Bob Church) (05/08/90)
In article <12795@smoke.BRL.MIL>, gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes: > > IIGS: APW C (available only from APDA, now run by Apple) > ORCA/C (available from ByteWorks, in some software stores) > > 8-bit: Aztec C (from Manx Software Systems) > Hyper C, not recommended > > Actually, I don't recommend developing C applications for the 8-bit > Apple line unless your development system has a hard disk and a CPU > accelerator. > I use Orca/M and the Manx C compiler on my souped up //c. Unless you are just wanting to learn C (which is what I'm doing) I would advise against using Manx on the 8 bit machine. While my accellerated machine can handle it ok the finished products tend to run too slowly for an unexcellerated computer. Even printing text to screen is painfully slow. The good news, however, is that the Apple // is a beauty to program in Assembler. You can turn out programs that can be distributed to "off the shelf" machines easily. ******************************************************************** * * * bob church bchurch@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu * * * * If economics isn't an "exact" science why do computers crash * * so much more often than the stock market? * * bc * ********************************************************************