ACTION! vs. C/65

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2 total messages Started by Kurt Godden Thu, 02 Jan 1986 17:39

#1872

Author: Kurt Godden
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1986 17:39

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At last...an 8-bit question!

Can anyone discuss the relative merits or otherwise of OSS's ACTION! cartridge
vs. their C/65 compiler.  Which would you recommend I purchase?  I know that 
C/65 requires MAC/65, but that's ok.  I'm more interested in things like
ease of programming in one lang vs. the other, development environment
provided, known bugs, speed, etc.  I'm leaning toward C/65 mainly because
learning C at least would be of use with other machines, whereas ACTION!
is presumably of no use outside 8-bit Atariland.  I have an Atari 800.
Posting replies to the net would probably be appropriate here.  Thanks.

Kurt Godden
godden.gmr@csnet-relay

I have no opinions, but if I did they could be yours for a price.

Re: ACTION! vs. C/65

#1878

Author: G Taylor
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 1986 13:50

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> Can anyone discuss the relative merits or otherwise of OSS's ACTION! cartridge
> vs. their C/65 compiler.  Which would you recommend I purchase?  I know that 
> C/65 requires MAC/65, but that's ok.  I'm more interested in things like
> ease of programming in one lang vs. the other, development environment
> provided, known bugs, speed, etc.  I'm leaning toward C/65 mainly because
> learning C at least would be of use with other machines, whereas ACTION!
> is presumably of no use outside 8-bit Atariland.  I have an Atari 800.
> 
There has been considerable recent discussion of the merits of ACTION!
To summarize, buy ACTION! if you have any real interest in programming
the Atari, otherwise stick with Atari Basic.

Mild Flame!  Before I encountered ACTION! I was able to use a friend's
system who had the MAC/65 and C/65 conglomeration.  I was appalled by
the list of C constructs not supported by C/65, e.g. "for statements,
do-while statements, switch statement," and all of the more exotic C
constructs.  That was a bad start, but I found it to be quirky as
well, e.g. keywords had to be in UPPER CASE to be recognized.
Finally, the bother of shifting between editors, compiler, assembler
to get an executable was a real pain (this is one of the *main
advantages* of ACTION! -- it is easy to do this with ACTION!).

I encourage you to learn C, but I have yet to find a C in the Atari
800 world where you will learn anything very useful except frustration
tolerance.

Glen A. Taylor
AT&T  (Consumer Products Division)
Indianapolis, IN   
(317) 845-3709   inuxd!gat

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