Re: C programming langauge on Apple II

["Leor Zolman" <leor@bdsoft.com>]

Paul Schlyter wrote:
> In article <1156105359.753280.27470@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>,
>  <mores_p@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >Hi!,
> >
> >Do they (programmers) use C programming language on Apple II? (II+, IIe
> >or IIc) I have the impression that most Apple II programmers normally
> >use either Basic (I did on my Apple II days) or Assembly. I am not sure
> >if it's correct.
>
> That's probably correct under Apple DOS at least.
>
> >Also, how do you rate C as a programming language on Apple II? Is it
> >good?
>
> It's decent under Apple II CP/M -- on other Apple II OS'es I wouldn't
> bother trying to use C.  Perhaps if someone rewrote BDS C in 6502
> assembly language.... :-)
>

I never played with an Apple II, but I do recall learning that the 6502
had an 8-bit stack pointer... which meant that the usual way of
implementing automatic storage, on the stack, wouldn't be possible...
and severe limits on recursion, funciton call nesting depth, etc.,
would be present at runtime. With that, it seemed much more palatable
for me to work on an 8080-based C compiler rather than a 6502-based
one...
 -leor