Re: C

[wsquires@lonestar.utsa.edu (William H. Squires)]

In article <23FEB199417365054@alpha.sunquest.com> rjd@alpha.sunquest.com (Robert J. Dull) writes:
>Greetings,
>
>I was wondering what is available as for as C compilers for
>the GS or even the //e.  Where can a.) purchase or b.) download
>a good C compiler.  Thanks.
>
>bob
>rjd@alpha.sunquest.com
>

  For the //GS, the only (specific) C compiler (& development system) is
Orca/C from Byteworks, Inc. It comes with a mini version of the latest GS/OS
System software (a minimum configuration to boot -- latest is 6.0.1), the
Installer and scripts, any needed shell drivers, the compiler, linker,
desktop editor/debugger, the shell itself, help files for all of the
shell commands, complete libraries and header files, and 2 disks of example
programs! The manuals are well written, and cover all of the parts of the
software system.
  Byteworks also makes other programming utilities & languages in the Orca-
line; Object-Pascal,Modula-2,Integer Basic,Orca/M (super-good macro-assembler
for the 65816!), text Debugger, Disassembler, Talking tools, and finally,
the Design Master (for constructing desktop screens!! generates code in
C & Pascal, as well as Rez (which comes with any programming language).
  The only C compilers for the regular Apple ][ series are Hyper-C, and
Manx-C (an old product -- may not be available anymore). I don't have either
of these, so I can't give you a review of them.
  Despite early rumors, the Orca/C compiler is not really that buggy. There
may be a few, but I haven't found any serious ones yet (and I've been at
it for a year or so, now)! The only one of any note, is that you can't use
fscanf() and fgets() in the same file -- only one or the other. Trying to
use both usually corrupts the file buffer!
  I've used the assembler, C and Pascal for a long time now, and I'm very
happy with all of the products, even though there are a few gotchas here
and there. The system is much more friendly than MS-DOS-based development
enviroments that i've seen, while the shell can alias MS-DOS commands to
ProDOS commands, so that you can type in DIR from a ProDOS-GS/OS based
shell! Of course you can alias other commands too... like UNIX, for
example! The only thing it can't do that MS-DOS can, is the PATH= handling.
  I highly recommend the Orca-line of programming products if you're
serious about such things -- it's definitely money well spent! The products
work well together, so that multi-lingual program development is greatly
enhanced!
                            Happy C programming!
                            wsquires@lonestar.utsa.edu
                            (William H Squires Jr.)