🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1501@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Mr Jack Campin) writes:
>
>I posted a request for information about Modula-2 compilers for the Sun 3.
>	* One person liked Sun's own compiler a LOT, saying their support was

That person was I.

>	  excellent, it was a mature and pretty bugfree product, it did
>	  cross-calling, had fantastic libraries, had a makefile generator,
>	  and had built-in dbxtool support. It has extensions beyond Wirth,
>	  which can safely be ignored. The person who wrote it is now at
>	  Oregon Software (see below).

The person who wrote the compiler is now at Oregon.  The person who wrote the
review is at the ETH.  The beyond-Wirth extensions might be useful if your
project wants to use special features of Sun OS/hardware.

>We haven't made a decision yet (even on whether we want to use Modula at all).

If I were developing a serious product on Suns, I'd probably stick to C;
teaching in an environment where Modula-2 is known requires a M2 compiler.
Sun's is very good for the job.  (I won't expound on that point in this
paragraph. ;-)

>ACE and Oregon both look very attractive, maybe with ACE having the edge. (It
>looks from ACE's description that their compiler and UKC's `ups', the best
>debugger on the planet, could be made to interwork with a bit of hacking.
>If someone were to make that happen I might even try to *like* Modula).

dbxtool is ok as well, especially with mouse/graphical/event-driven
code.

>One point that mystified me is why Modula should need special make and version
>control gubbins, as Sun, ACE and Oregon all provide. Why can't the general
>purpose ones - SCCS, nmake, and friends - hack it?

I was probably not clear as to this point.  There are no "special
gubbins." Sun's compiler has support for all of the general-purpose
tools you mention, including SCCS, nmake, makemake, and interfaces to
C, fortran, pascal, etc.  The manual explains these and many other
topics in a clear, concise manner.  I learned sccs from the m2 manual.
The make-file generator m2mg is very helpful for students who don't
understand the intricacies of make.  They just say m2mg <main_module>
and then make.  They don't have to learn make first.

In addition to a fine product, the Sun compiler has another thing going
for it:  support from the hardware vendor.  Upgrades to the OS won't
break the compiler and leave you in the lurch until a different vendor
massages their product.  I expect the 2.1 release (for Sun OS 4.0) of
the compiler (which is supposed to have a much better optomizer and fpp
support) THIS week.  The tape is already in Zuerich.  That's service.

I'm embarrased to admit this (even though it wasn't my code) but I once
e-mailed sun Mt. View megabytes of modula-2 source, complaining about a
bug in the compiler.  The bug was in the code.  The m2 guy at Sun fixed
the bug in the M2 source.  That's service.  That m2 guy is now at
Oregon, but Sun continues their commitment to the M2 product and their
support.

I could ramble on for pages on this topic, and will do so in private
e-mail if anyone is interested.  I wanted to clear up a few points,
namely that there are no "special gubbins," that I am not Chuck, that
there is good SCCS support, that the extensions are useful but
Sun_OS-specific, and that Sun service is excellent, an important
factor.

>ARPA: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk       USENET: jack@cs.glasgow.uucp

-Mitch
-- 
-Mitchell F. Wyle            wyle@ethz.uucp
Institut fuer Informatik     wyle%ifi.ethz.ch@relay.cs.net
ETH Zentrum                  
8092 Zuerich, Switzerland    +41 1 256-5237