Re: C programming langauge on Apple II

["PZ" <skierpaul@yahoo.com>]

I remember hearing something regarding Small C for the Apple II a long
long time ago.  However this might have been a CPM based compiler
rather than one native to the 65(c)02.

- Paul

Eric wrote:
> mdj wrote:
>
> > Using a cross-compiler, you can get pretty good results. Unfortunately
> > the 6502 is pretty poorly suited to C in terms of optimisation, so
> > you'll usually find that compiled code will be fairly large and not
> > particularly fast.
>
> Yes, but compare cc65 to the execution speed of Applesoft, and even
> Apple Pascal. I bet it's faster than them and if you're familiar with C
> that might be plenty good.
>
> Sadly, they didn't base cc65 on Hendrix's version 2.2 of Small C, which
> is where he added intermediate code and a somewhat efficient optimizer.
> It turns out to be easier to optimize intermediate code unless you go
> to a lot of trouble to optimize native code. Most of the Small C native
> code optimizers are fairly simple and nowhere near as effective.
>
> Once Hendrix has optimized the intermediate code, he sends it through a
> final native code generation phase. This can't compete with commercial
> compilers/optimizers but it's surprisingly effective given the
> relatively few lines of code it requires.
> 
> Eric