bmyers@clemente.ucr.edu (brian myers) (06/04/91)
A few weeks back I posted an article asking for information about using Glockenspiel as a front end to the Watcom-8 C compiler. The response I got was pretty unanimous: Glock sucks. I read an article in Computer Language that pretty much confirmed this. The article was a product review of five C++ compilers, three of which were cfronts. The other two cfronts reviewed were Comeau and Intek. Comeau was by far the best of the bunch, implementing the AT&T 2.1 cfront standard (all others were 2.0) but had two major hitches for Windows programming: large model only and no near-far keywords. The reason for this is that they're trying to maintain compatibility with the Unix environment and provide an easy path for moving apps between the two. This sounds like an excellent choice DOS-Unix migrators, large model programs, and possibly 32-bit programs that run under DOS extenders (which Watcom-8 also supports), but not Windows. Now we get to the Intek product. It had some installation specific problems that can be worked out with a little care. It's preprocessor was non-ansi standard, but they provide the source and make file for it, so that can be fixed. It supports any memory model the backend compiler supports as well as the near-far keywords. It was tested with MSC and Watcom-7 as backends and did just fine though it was designed for High-C by Metaware. It sounds like this one may do the trick, though I can't say for sure until I've played with it. So does anyone have any experience with this product or see any glaring errors in my reasoning here? Remember, my goals here are to have the niceness of C++, possibly with C++/views or the like, coupled with the wonderful code generation and portablility of Watcom. Does any one know of another cfront that may fill the bill? How about a native C++ compiler (Zortech & BC++ can't match Watcom's code generation and portability)? How about the upcomming (?) MS-C++? Any input appreciated, post or email is fine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "...and why do I have this sudden urge to say -- YO" -Dale | Brian D. Myers Peon UCR graduate student: bmyers@ucrmath.ucr.edu | D is for (Dale)