jerryn@pro-europa.cts.com (Jerry Norris) (03/24/90)
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes: > unfortunately there hasn't been a fully satisfactory C compiler for the > 8-bit Apples, which has been one factor in retarding software availability > for them. (Their puny RAM and disk capacity is a larger factor, though.) I'll overlook that puny part (heh) and talk about a C compiler. I've yet to be able to find one that anyone can recommend. Most of the programs that I write for the ][ series is in ZBASIC (it's a sour note that it's a creditable compiler which Zedcor decided to discontinue upgrades for the ][ series due to their marketing idea that everything will be Macintosh. Mind you, I'm not a zealot, but from what I've heard they are (or were) still selling tons of the ProDOS version... (sigh)). I've played around with Kyan Pascal, but I can't seem to get hold of the company to find out more information about the compiler (specifically, I'm trying to find out if the compiler will create a SYS file from within the program, much as ZBASIC does (perhaps even without the extra LIB files that must be resident in the directory/subdirectory of the ZBASIC SYS program). I've used Apple Pascal, and I find it hard to believe that they would _not_ put out a version of Pascal that runs under their _official_ 8-bit OS! Argh! Until I've found out about Kyan's Pascal, I will continue to use ZBASIC (much to my chagrin), and only look at what Kyan Pascal can do, not buy it. I just can't justify the cost if the only thing that it will let me do is to run programs within yet _another_ pseudo system.... ____________________________________________________________________________ jerryn@pro-europa.cts.com | "What do we do now?" crash!pro-europa!jerryn | "I don't know, I'm making this GEnie: Vermithrax | up as I go along!" ___________________________________________________________________________
lm03_cif@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Larry Moss) (03/25/90)
The topic of C compilers for the eight bit Apples comes up fairly often. I've been thinking for a long time about a possible solution. Well, it won't help everyone but it would help some people. Has anyone considered writing a cross compiler for the 6502 that can run on a UNIX machine? (or for that matter, any machine that people on the net have access to). The biggest problems that seem to come up with developing a compiler for the Apple II's are lack of memory and speed. If I could work on something on the Sun 3/60 I'm typing on right now, both of those problems would be taken care of. I haven't written very much for my II+ in several years because I just don't enjoy it anymore. I like playing games on it sometimes and occassionally there are times that a quick Applesoft hack will help me to get something done. There are many times that I wish I could use my Apple for a project, but I just don't have the time to get something working with Aztec C or the patience to work in Assembly (gee, it's been a while since I did anything in Assembly...). For those of us that are lucky enough to have access, a workstation would be a fantastic development environment. Especially since there's someone out there now that's working on a an Apple II emulator for X (sorry, I can't remember your name). I don't have any experience writing compilers and my 6502 Assembly is kinda rusty, but I do have the source for a simple C interpretter that was in Dr. Dobbs last summer and it seems like as reasonable a start as any unless someone else can suggest something. - Larry -- lm03_cif@uhura.cc.rochester.edu / CLARKE'S THIRD LAW: lmo3_ss@db1.cc.rochester.edu / Any sufficiently advanced technology is lmo3_ss@uordbv.bitnet / indistinguishable from magic.