🚀 go-pugleaf

Bill Canning asks about development systems for the Atari ST. My
recommendation is TDI Modula-2, available from TDI Software in Dallas.
The system is pretty robust (compilation and linking are much faster
than the 2 ST C compilers I've tried, Lattice and Alcyon), and provides
full GEM support. There is an included editor, which I don't much care
for, but I recently posted an interface that lets you use Micro-Emacs.

It's also quite cheap: the base system is US$79.00, though I'd recommend
the Developer's Version at US$149.00, which among other things includes
the really nice Megamax Resource Editor, as modified for Modula-2. The
library source (if you're really devoted) is another US$150.00.

TDI are just releasing a new version (V3.0) which claims to have an even
faster compiler. I have ordered but not received this update. 

The only wart is that TDI's documentation doesn't include much on GEMDOS,
GEM, and the various Atari ROM packages. One day, Atari will publish that
stuff in a reasonable way. Until then, if you don't have a friend who will
loan you his or her copy of the Atari Developer's Kit, the best bet is to
get a copy of the excellent GEM Programmer's Guide (published by Sybex) and
the execrable Abacus books (Atari ST Internals is the only one of real
interest). Because GEMDOS is similar to MS-DOS, books on MS-DOS might also
be of interest.