Re: //GS software

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <kindall-0607982229120001@nic-c41-094.mw.mediaone.net>,
Jerry Kindall <kindall@mail.manual.com> wrote:
>> I really really really doubt you'll et a C++ compiler to produce
>> 65(c)02 code.

>There were at least two C compilers which produced 6502/65C02 code.  One,
>Aztec C, was used to write Quality's EasyDrive and RAMUP utilities. 
>(Well, later versions of the latter one, anyway.)

   C++ is a whole lot of stuff piled on top of C, and the actual
definition of the language hasn't yet been nailed down. Significant
changes to your compiler are needed if you want to support C++
directly. [And some of the old C++ -> C pre-compilers may not have
been updated in years once C++ compilers were written] Most to all of
the C compilers for 65[C]02 didn't do floating point numbers, hardly
making them 'complete' to begin with.

   Next, when generating code, it really is *much* easier to program
for the GS where there's a lot of memory, expanded OS, 16-bit
registers, etc. 65[C]02 machines are much more limited, forcing you to
chop up code into overlays or the like (e.g. Appleworks), something
that requires a lot of extra work that compilers can't easily do for
you. Having to sit down and massage code around so that it's in pieces
is definitely not fun. [Getting a 11+MB Netscrape binary to work on
even a 65C02 box w/ 1MB RAM is really not going to happen, despite
continual claims from a Turkey]

   For another programming language, GSSoft from The Byteworks has
been in development almost 2 years now. And 6502/65C02 support is
*never* mentioned anywhere to my knowledge. I'm not Mike Westerfield,
but I'd think that the above reasons on codegen are most likely the
reason. 

   Also, if that's the rough development time to get a compiler up and
running, certainly don't hold your breath... And with the pirates and
people not opening their wallets, commercial software is becoming less
and less likely to happen. People have only themselves to blame when
the programmers they refused to support don't ever release anything
for them again.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
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